The Chitina Dipnetters booth at the 2022 Fairbanks Outdoor was another success this year. We met a lot of people bringing in 84 new and renewing members, hosted an informative dipnetter howto seminar, and gave away a fancy Cutco brand filet knife to one lucky member, Sharee Melson of North Pole. Big thanks go out to volunteers Karen Clautise, Jeff Bushke, and Laz Porter for helping us work the booth this year!

With the relaxing of  COVID 19 restrictions, CDA will resume its annual in-person meeting in 2022. The annual meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 10 at 7PM in the TVSA shooting range building at 1230 TVSA Way, Fairbanks, AK.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has released their 2022 Copper River Salmon forecast.

CDA will host a booth and conduct a dipnetting seminar at the April 8-10 Fairbanks Outdoor Show. This is another opportunity for dipnetters to become involved by volunteering a couple hours at our booth. A CDA board member will be present during the entire show. It is a fun time and you will get to meet other dipnetters as well as educate newcomers to the fishery. CDA has printed a trifold handout giving a basic primer to dipnetting at Chitina. An informational flyer detailing CDA's purpose and achievements will also be available for handout.

CDA Board Member John Siegfreid and I attended the December meeting of the Alaska Board of Fisheries in Cordova. I'm happy to report that no regulations negatively affecting the Chitina Personal Use fishery were passed. The CDA's one beneficial proposal was denied.

Multiple proposals that would have restricted dipnetting from a boat in the Personal Use (PU) and subsistence fisheries were not approved — boat fishing may continue with no new restrictions. The proposal prohibiting the use of gillnet mesh in dipnets failed. The proposal to lower the current PU bag limit, which CDA got put in place at the 2014 BOF meeting, failed. The proposal to require mandatory online reporting of PU salmon within 3 days of the time of harvest also failed . . . read more

The Alaska Board of Fisheries (BOF) will meet in Cordova from November 30 - December 6 to deliberate and vote on proposals submitted for Prince William Sound/Upper Copper and Susitna River finfish. The Chitina Dipnetters Association (CDA) will be represented at the meeting by two of our board members to defend proposals beneficial to Chitina Personal Use Dipnetters (PU) and oppose those detrimental to our fishery.

Public Comments Concerning Submitted Proposals To The December 2021 PWS/Upper Copper and Upper Susitna Finfish BOF Meeting

The Alaska Department of Transportation's Tazlina crew finished clearing the trail from O'Brien Creek all the way to Haley Creek, the southern terminus of the Copper River Personal Use dipnet fishery, this fall. They intend to drive the trail later in May to see if winter slides caused any trouble spots. If they find any, they will bring out equipment and clear the trail before the dipnet season begins in June. Pictures after the break.

From the Fairbanks Daily News Miner, “For the Chitina permit, this year it is required that all harvest reporting be done online. In the past you could fill out your paper and mail it to the department. No longer. For those without internet access, they can call the Fairbanks F&G office and go through the process over the phone, but mailing physical reports in is no longer an option.

The Tazlina DOT crew, using monies from the $15 Chitina Personal Use dipnet permit fee, were back at work this October clearing the O'Brien to Haley Creeks trail used by dipnetters to access the Woods Canyon section of the Copper River. They began where they left off (5.2 mile) in the fall of 2018 and, after removing 2 large rock slides, were able to complete another mile of trail repair. The crew hopes to continue work in spring and fall of 2020. Barring any new land slides, work should go quickly up to the landslide at Haley Creek. Pictures.