We made it to the Deakins' place by late afternoon and found them heavily engaged in fishing. Since homesteading five acres on Cook Inlet's bluff in 1969, Brent's grandfather, and subsequently his daughters, son-in-laws, and his grandchildren, have been using gill nets to fish sockeye salmon (aka "reds") as they return each summer to spawn in the Kenai river. Fish and game had unexpectedly opened extra days for the commercial fishermen, so they were hard at work, picking fish from the nets as the tide changed.
We got acquainted with the process in a hurry and were intrigued with each step of their process and how well they work together. Over the years they have perfected a number of systems and the nuances to maximize their efficiency in getting fish from the water to the buying station in very little time.
They have twelve nets they can place 600 ft from one another to cover a large off-shore portion. Each one is about 100-150 ft long. They harvest or "pick" the fish from the nets one of two ways: they can drag the net up onto the beach or they can pick the fish directly into aluminum boats.
Although it is quite a bit of work, the atmosphere on the beach is relaxed. The weather was great and the kids were playing on the beach, in forts they had built from drift-wood, while the family was tending the nets. We were excited to witness the work in progress and thought it sort of a treat that as soon as we got out of the car, the action was under way.
Our kids paired up, the way they do (each of our kids is within a year's age of one of the Deakins girls) and played for a bit, then Ryan and Audra came to where the fishing was going on. The following is from Ryan's journal.
So then we were just walking along trying to find treasure and then we saw the boat come in and there were a ton of sockeye salmon! I thought they were big cause I usually fish trout! And it was cool how they put their finger up through the gill and just throw them straight into the big buckets. Then the tractor came over and carried the fish over so that they could wash them. Cool, huh?! I helped them a little by putting into the buckets, but all I had on was gloves, no gear or anything, so my shirt got slimed like nuts! So I wasn't up for cleaning the fish although I did touch them with my bare hands.
We had great fun that day. It felt so great to know that we would not be a distraction for our friends.
In fact, we were excited by the opportunity to be a part of their process and be able to fellowship at the same time.
We arrived that Wednesday and would stay until Saturday before our excursion to Seward. We knew that we had much to look forward to.
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