Each 'permanant resident' Alaskan not only get paid each year to live in Alaska (this year each Alaskan will get $1,300US of the 'permanant fund' that comes from oil money), they also get a quota of natural produce to harvest that will last them through the winter, if they should be that way inclined. If you want to be eating Red Salmon in mid-December, you are entitled to take 15 each year, or 30 if you have more than just yourself in your household to feed, by the relatively easy technique of dipnetting - a process that is reserved solely for Alaskan permanant residents. Here follows incriminating photos of me helping out.
10-foot long dipnets - just put it in there and let the salmon swim right in. The state of the salmon varied as some were further along in the process of dying, that begins as soon as they enter the fresh water of the river from the salty ocean, and ends soon after spawning and the laying of eggs. All meat was acceptable for consumption and mostly we took what fate put in our nets.
Take the fish out, bludgeon it with 'the whumper' (the stick), and string it on the cord with the other catch to go back into the river until we're ready for filleting. 
The catch. We took our quota of 46 red salmon in four hours of fishing. Luck was with us on this day because many folks had come in the weeks preceeding our visit to the copper to be disappointed and unable to get their quota. For all salmon species this year, the runs were late - salmon returning to the rivers later than predicted. Further South, in the Kenai Peninsula, the Department of Fish and Game had closed the season before the Reds had returned in numbers that allowed locals to get their quotas. We were lucky.
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