Back in the days of old, say about 1992 or so, I found this creek that had
an extremely fast current and even faster fish that would just turn on their
F-16 afterburners at the mere sight of a stupid dip-net that was being swung
after them in the clear, cool waters of their habitat. What was even more
insulting to me was that they'd then hang just out of reach of my dip-net
and point their pectoral fins and giggle and laugh about my futile attempts
to snare a few of them. ( When I state that it was an extremely fast
current, please know that where I live in Bayou country, most of our
waterways are slow moving, sluggish, turbid colored bayous or sloughs.) I
wasn't used to clear, spring-fed creeks at all. Especially not those that I
could actually SEE minnows in it's depths.
Soooooo........I went back home and went to the drawing board trying to
figure out a design that that would be not as obvious and at the same time,
be more effective at capturing some samples of these (F-16) types of
supersonic fish.
After perusing several of my local bait shops and the Walmart, K-Mart and
several other suppliers of bait and minnow net suppliers, I found an example
of a "Shad net" in the Memphis Net and Twine catalog that just might work.
But, I didn't need such a large mesh and net that was depicted to be towed
behind a boat that was designed to catch shad for baitfish.
Then an idea struck me! Get a stainless steel hoop, hang a dip-net bag on
it. Then rig a bridle system just like that displayed in the Memphis Net and
Twine catalog and attach a hand-line to it....But scale it down to a usable,
human-operated scoop net.
The first time I took it out, VOILA! Those F-16 Shiners weren't laughing at
me anymore! And as a plus, there were no more wet feet, destroyed habitat
and a lot less stress and trauma on both me or the fish! Sometimes it was so
easy that all I had to do was toss the net out into the stream, position it
in an upright position and wait for them to swim into it or right in front
of the net! I couldn't believe how well it worked!
So, if anyone could use such an efficient net in their territory, please
contact me. I will be assembling some at an initial cost of $40 per net that
is fully rigged and ready to catch an F-16.......minnow that is.
Postage/Shipping not included, sorry.
Regards,
BG
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