Photos: Dipnetting for hooligan on Turnagain Arm

Dipnetters lined the silty banks of Turnagain Arm and the Twentymile River on Sunday, methodically bouncing their nets along the bottom and scooping up hooligan.

How to cook them? “Deep fried is the best way,” said Souxath Xayasone. “Like in chicken batter, flour and cornstarch.” Xayasone planned to cook them that night. “It’s better to cook them when they are fresh.”

John Truchan of Wasilla, who fished the Twentymile River upstream from the railroad bridge, said he uses an “air fryer or smoke them after brining them.” Truchan also uses the hooligan as bait while ice fishing for northern pike in the Susitna Valley.