2020 Copper River Dipnetting Reports
- Thread starter iyouktug
- Start date
Michael Strahan
webmaster
Thanks for getting this thread started! It will become our official Copper River dip netting thread; I stuck it at the top where we can find it!
Right on Mike, hope to see you down there in the canyon this year.
| May-21 | 2,532 | 4,918 | 41,226 | |
| May-20 | 1,623 | 2,386 | 26,093 | |
| May-19 | 763 | 763 | 17,891 |
I could not find a place to launch my boat today at Chitina. I wanted to test drive it in the river but currently the main channel is out of reach of my 4x4. Upriver of the bridge, after winding my way out around soft spots below the Kotsina gravel deposits and small channels, there was a final stretch of 40 yards of deep wet sand with clay. Too soft for my truck. Below the bridge on the Chitina side by the Chitina Village "Iron Ranger" launch fee and parking fee station, there is a channel which would have to be crossed twice, the first one was knee deep, the second one only 8 inches. Only 40 degrees air temperature today, so the water is still low. On the downstream McCarthy side of the bridge, about 400 hundred yards down, people with a lighter inflatable MAY be able to launch, but the bank dropped off steeply.
Who knows what it will look like in 2 weeks? Maybe if the Chitina Village Corporation plans on doing some gravel work and the river doesn't rise too much, dip netters can make it out there to launch their boats.
O'Brian Creek does not have a public launch site.
Who knows what it will look like in 2 weeks? Maybe if the Chitina Village Corporation plans on doing some gravel work and the river doesn't rise too much, dip netters can make it out there to launch their boats.
O'Brian Creek does not have a public launch site.
Last edited:
msta999
Member
Anyone hear how it went for the first day? Last I looked, looked like the counts where low....
msta999
Member
Thanks for the update! Is he in a boat or on shore?
It was but as far as I know people cleaned it up.
danaroypatton
New member
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Thursday afternoon, 06/11/20, from a boat, below the bridge, three nets, five hours: 56 sockeye and 3 kings.
Appreciate any current reports on how dipnetting is going and how the "launch" area at the bridge is, what to expect, etc. Water level seems to be on the rise but cloudy/rainy weather in the forecast. Thanks in advance for anyone willing to give us an update!
Just got back from spending over a week in the Chitina area. Fished from the trail for 4 days. 29 fish 1 king. People everywhere, it’s becoming an ATV Highway and people are camping on the best holes and blocking trails. With atv people competing with each other and also with the charters dropping people off, it can be difficult to find a good hole to fish in. I stayed over the week to fish the opener this morning. Thinking I would get a good hole to fish, I headed in at 6pm Wednesday to try and beat the crowds. That did not work, people were setting up camps as early as 1 pm Wednesday just to make sure they had their spot. When did AK turn into this mad house. I’ve fished the copper since 2002 and it’s to a point that it’s just not fun anymore. <br/><br/><br/>Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
TR
New member
Lots of people out this season riding and camping. Did our first camping trip at Jim creek in early April as our annual shakedown and never seen so many people there before. Quarantine has created a GTFO psychosis. Were I living in a big city, joining a riot might be alluring.
papabear3
New member
my daughter in law told me that the river is closed to kings and cant catch.....I cant find anything about it....is it true ?
Headed down in about 2 weeks
Headed down in about 2 weeks
iofthetaiga
Well-known member
If I were planning to head down there, the first thing I would do is check the EO's for the opening schedule....
"...the Chitina Subdistrict personal use dip net fishery will be closed to the retention of king salmon for the remainder of the season. King salmon incidentally taken must be released immediately and returned to the water unharmed." https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/sf/EONR/...2020&NRID=2971
O'brien Creek Trail conditions up to mile marker 6.6: https://youtu.be/lpsvdrU16OM
I fished the Canyon in my 18 foot jet drive on the 4th and 5th. There were 3 of us dipping in my boat and things were decent considering the lowish numbers we were picking up about 2 to 3 fish per hour. We fished 10 hours on the 4th and picked up 26 very nice reds. We fished another 8 hours on the 5th and bonked 20 more chromed out reds. Was a great time! The water was at least 6 feet lower than this time last year and I ran some pretty shallow water at one point when I took the wrong braid. The wind this year was also heavy! On the way down river my eyes got hammered with blowing silt making it difficult. All and all was a great time and I hope to see some more reports in the coming weeks.
PS... we caught some nice kings and had to turn them out of the nets
PS... we caught some nice kings and had to turn them out of the nets
