The Measure Net

I first saw this product at the California Fly Shop (great shop, BTW) while I was in San Jose for business all June and July.

After dealing with the very shallow bag on my travel/stand-by Brodin net which was a royal pain on the larger fish on the Little Truckee River, I finally decided to change the bag to one of these. I bought the large rubber replacement bag, and it fit my landing net like it was made for it (it was about $17.00 in the shop).

I had a chance to use it up at a family ranch near Steamboat Springs a couple of weeekends ago, and I'm pretty happy with it. I really like the rubber bag (the fisknat's are awesome, but expensive), because it doesn't retain odor, plus it is easier on the fish. The patented measuring system in the net is really cool (dang, now I can't exaggerate ), and works very well.

My biggest concern before using the net was that the fine nylon mesh that the measure is printed on would easily catch hooks, and that it would be a pain to get the hook barbs back through. It turns out it really isn't that bad. They do get stuck, but it is easier to back a hook out of this mesh than any other landing net material I've personally used. This mesh reminds me of the stuff the football jerseys I wore playing when I was younger were made from. A fairly fine mesh with larger holes spread throughout.

We couldn't get the fish at the ranch to hit on flies or nymphs, so we ended up fishing spinners deep (it was pretty hot out, and the water was warm) at the dam end of the pond. We would consistently get hits around 15' deep (out of about 30'), and one large brown I hooked on a small crankbait got several barbs on both small treble hooks (we were keeping the fish, otherwise I wouldn't use trebles) stuck in the net's mesh. After getting the fish off of the hook and out of the net, I had to tackle getting the lure out. I was a bit worried, because it was a real mess, and one barb was stuck through 3 times! As it turned out, it really wasn't too hard to get the lure out, and it probably only took a minute or two at most. I was surprised, because if that had happened with any other mesh net I've used, I would have had to pinch the barbs to get the lure out of the net.

I wasn't sure about the zip-on style of these replacement bags, but after using it, it couldn't be any easier. I personally wouldn't mind properly tying the bag onto the net frame (slightly lighter this way), but the zipper method works well, especially for a replacement bag.

Anyway, overall I'm pretty happy with this net bag. The replacement bag I bought sells at a good price point, and seems to be a well-made product. I bought a couple of extras to bring home for gifts, and I'm glad I did. I would highly recommend it!!!