Fish is a very important food source here on the big river. During summer it's salmon and in winter there is four species referred to as whitefish or white meated fish. There is burbot, lush, sheefish (that can get huge and look like a tarpon), and then two smaller species of actual whitefish.
These are important for fresh fish during the winter months and most families here will keep an under ice net all winter.
Early in November when the Yukon has frozen over only a few inches, all the men will go out on the new ice right in front of the village. There, they strech out their nets on top of a smooth patch of ice to create a marker for holes that they will chop to set the net. Laying the net down helps to measure the length.
At each end of the net a hole is chipped through the ice, until we have a round hole about 3 feet in diameter.
We also have a long pole or board about ten to fifteen feet long. A short string is tied on with a net floater (or an empty air-tight jug) attached to it.
The pole is laid on the ice as a marker in between the two holes and more holes are chopped through the ice at each measured length of the pole.
Then a line is tied to the floater and pushed under the ice until the floater pops up in the next hole. The line is then untied and held while the pole is retracted out the way it came. The line is tied again and pushed under the ice again until the floater pops up in the next hole and so on until you have a line under the ice from the first hole to the furtherest hole.
Then the net is piled in front of one hole and tied to the line. Going to the other hole, pull the line as the net feeds down the hole and under the ice. Continue to pull until it pops out at the other end. It is then tied to a long pole (approximately 6 to 8 feet). That pole is submersed down the hole several feet and tied to a brace stick that is frozen in the ice beside the hole for support. (To create the brace stick, chop a hole beside the large hole and place the brace stick inside. By the time we finish setting the net the brace stick is frozen into the ice enough to hold the other stick). The other end is also tied to a pole in the same manner. We push the stick straight down through the hole into the water and tie it off on a wooden support brace frozen into the ice as well.
When checking the net daily, ice is chopped out of the two end holes and the slush is scooped out with a shovel. Then a line is laid out the a little longer than the length of the net on top the ice. One of the poles is then untied from the support and pulled up out of the water. The net is untied from that pole and tied to the line stretched out on top the ice. It is let go. Then we go to the other end; that pole is untied from the support then pulled out of the water and left tied to the pole as the net is pulled out of the water. We pile the net on top of the ice in front of the hole and each fish is carfully picked out of the net as they come out on top of the ice.
Once you reach the end of the net the end is thrown back into the hole. The line at the other end, at the far hole, is pulled and the net feeds itself back under the ice. The pole is reset on the support stick and the other end is untied from the line and reattached to the pole and tied back to the support.
The line is rewrapped and the fish are loaded up in a sack to be shared with friends and family back in the village.
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