Trout, Salmon, and Grayling Streams

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Alaska

> The Copper River

A raven returns to its cliff-side nest along the Copper River.

A raven flies over the Copper River.

This is a pretty cool silhouette of a bald eagle carrying some food, even though it isn't terribly well-focused or well-lit. I was actually driving when I took it (though it was on a no-traffic campground driveway, so it wasn't unsafe) and the eagle swooped into the roadway right in front of me, then flew around to the side and gave me this profile.

An anonymous dipnetter works the bank near the access point at O'Brien Creek.

This is the delta where O'Brien Creek flows out into the Copper River's channel. It may be one of the most intense graveyards for filleted salmon in the world.

Seagulls rest on a gravel bar across from the fish cleaning station at O'Brien Creek, in between meals.

This is the home base for the Chitina dipnetting fishery that supplies thousands of Alaskans with much (if not most) of their annual protein. Many people pay a jetboat charter to ferry them down to prime spots in the canyon, and ferry their hundreds of pounds of fish back up. Others follow the trail to which this bridge leads and negotiate the steep canyon wall themselves, with their fish, and haul them back with the help of an ATV.

I spent twelve hours holding this net in the river, often in fast current. The key is to hold it in an eddy, so it billows out upstream and can catch the salmon that are all swimming in that direction. The eddies along the bank attract salmon because it's easier for them to run upstream with the current than against it. The best eddies are the narrow ones where the rest of the river is flowing fast downstream most of the salmon hug the bank.