I have finally found a way to carry a landing net for some of my bass fishing which doesn’t annoy me at all
Judging by the lack of bass anglers carrying a landing net for any of their fishing I am guessing that today’s blog post might not be of much interest to many of you out there, but I do like carrying one of those short-handle, scoop-type, rubber mesh landing nets some of the time. When I am actually standing in the water and fishing then it’s a no brainer with how easy it is to successfully land the fish in a net, and then I will often be able to release them by simply slipping the barbless hook out with no need to even touch the fish. Fish into the net, rod butt goes down the front of my waders, slip the barbless hook out, drop the net, bass swims away………….
So you can probably guess that somebody like me who enjoys messing around with stuff and trying to find solutions to various problems has indeed tried numerous different ways of carrying a landing net. It doesn’t work for me to have one clipped to my back like a lot of fly anglers might carry one, and however much I have tried a fair few of those magnet style net holder things, none of them have ever worked and I would actually say that for me they are verging on dangerous with how the net comes undone and I have nearly tripped over the thing when it has got wedged in a gully. Please don’t suggest magnets to me! They do not work for me, end of, plus any I have tried have ended up rusting anyway.
The logical way for me to go was to use a series of carabiners which does work but it tends to rely on the net then needing to rest sort of over the top of my lure bag at my side. This is usually okay when I am actually fishing, but again it’s when I am moving around that the net often falls off the bag and gets in the way. You obviously need some sort of attachment from the net to some part of you or your lure bag or belt or something like that, so I have tended to bodge a bit of elasticated cord from net to carabiner and it’s kinda worked okay but it’s never been perfect.
Now you are going to have to excuse the fact that my perfect little solution happens to be a Savage Gear product, but I had nothing to do with its launch and I don’t think that the grownups have any idea that I’ve been trying this cheap little Savage Gear Bottle and Net Clip out anyway. It’s by no means a perfect product as such because the metal “snap clip” thing will rust via saltwater use, but it doesn’t actually matter as the velcro holds it in place on a belt or strap or whatever you need to attach it to. It’s the little plastic clip which is the clever thing here. The round bit goes around my net like the photo above, this then clips into the bit which is secured to you somewhere, and it’s a very easy case of squeezing the clip to release your net when you need to land a fish - as per the photo below.
I played around with where this little Savage Gear Bottle and Net clip might sit on me, and for me it’s turned out to be most logical that I place it where you can see below, and as if by magic my landing net now sits at my side and out of the way. I can walk and wade and stand in current and the net doesn’t come loose like it does with those magnetic holder things, the net is where I need it to be to get at easily but it’s not in my way at all. It doesn’t annoy me at all and this in turn makes me more inclined to carry a landing net because I’m not tripping over it or having to shove it out of the way all the time.
I wasn’t looking for a new landing net because for a long time I was using one of the Greys short-handle net and then I have also been using a rather clever but not cheap McLean weigh-net. Somebody at Savage Gear sent me a cheap as chips and very, very lightweight Savage Gear Pro Finezze Landing Net Floati M short-handle landing net which to be honest sat in a corner for at least six months because I had no use for it. It wasn’t until I got hold of one of these Bottle and Net Clips I found something rather useful about this Savage Gear net came to light. Firstly it floats which can be pretty handy, plus it’s really cheap, but it was the fact that attached to the handle is a simple elasticated lanyard which so easily secures to somewhere on my lure bag via looping it on, and then the Bottle and Net Clip as per below clips to the net and everything just works. So I gave it a go and so far I am really liking it.
Er, no comment! This clip I am talking about is within the red rectangle.
If it bothers you that the two main products I am talking about here happen to be from Savage Gear then so be it, but I am working with them and I can get access to some of the gear. It’s pure luck that the combination of Savage Gear Pro Finezze Landing Net Floati M and Bottle and Net Clip has turned out to be the best solution to carrying a landing net for some of my fishing that I have found so far. I haven’t linked to the items because the places I know and affiliate link with don’t currently stock the net or the clip, but you can easily Google them if any of this is of any interest at all. You all have a good weekend………….
