33 replies to this topic

[truecrimson]

I have had that Frabill net for several years, and as a landing net it works fine.  But the hoop is not closed.  There is about a 4-6 inch gap on the front of the net where there is no metal bar and only net.  A few good drags across gravel and it will be done.

[brackishdude]

I found a black-fabric net at bass pro that has small holes (most of my catches are on the small end) and a robust telescoping pole for about 40$. 

 

The net does have the fabric exposed around the frame/rim (rather than within it like the Perfect Dipnet), but I slit a piece of clear 3/4" poly tubing along it's length and zip tied it around the entire rim, enclosing and protecting the fabric.  It is awesome. 

[itsme]

Not entirely self-interested, but one point about netting on dipnets:  Most of what's out there in regular retail either has mesh that is too large for much of what NANFAns are after or, if fine enough, is not heavy enough to last long.  I developed the Perfect Dipnet for that reason as well as other reasons of durability of the frame and netting protection.  The standard Perfect Dipnet 1P has 1/8" Ace mesh, which is a professional grade netting.  Small enough to catch about anything, durable enough to not tear easily, and soft enough to be easy on the fishes.  The white is softer than the green now.  But the green is dipped in a coating, and is more durable, and is attractive to fishes, since it resembles plant cover in the water.  I don't have any black now since I had to switch to the dip after the manufacturer changed the formula for the net yarn.  It won't take regular dye now.  Might get some black dip eventually if there is enough demand.  It's a messy, labor intensive process.  As soon as I get new software to update the site, I'm going to raise the price on the green for that reason.  For now, I'm honoring the current pricing.

[olaf]

I tore the white netting on my Perfect Dipnet (I don't think it's meant to handle rocks the size I was routinely picking up somehow, and I suspect there may have been some broken glass involved) and replaced it with the green. It's not been used as much yet, thanks to winter, but it is definitely tougher. It's not as supple as the white, but it's much softer than it looks and the more you use it, the softer it gets. I'll be giving it the full test frequently soon, and I have confidence it's going to be great.

[truecrimson]

On the buckets, does it matter if they are food grade, virgin plastic, etc or will any old Lowes or Home depot bucket do for collecting an aquarium maintenance?

[truecrimson]

Oh, I wanted to ask, do the perfect dipnets float?  I just sent an email to order one.

[Michael Wolfe]

I use any Lowe's or Home Depot bucket... clean is important... not having had paint or stuff in it previously... but nothing special other than that.

[Casper]

Donate $2. to Firehouse Subs and get a 5 gallon pickle bucket.

If your into preserving your half way there. Otherwise rinse first.

[olaf]

I have found an apparently limitless source of food grade pickle buckets. White. Used once to transport pickles from a factory, so not beat up or rough inside. Grabbed some to use for massive fermentation projects and plan to grab more for fishy needs. But even after tons of scrubbing they still smell strongly of pickles and I'm wondering if anyone's ever had any issues with that being a problem for minnows, darters, etc. I don't think there's any actual brine still in the plastic, but I suppose there could be. Even if so, though, I'm guessing it's not as potentially harmful as paint, soap or some sort of solvent or industrial chemical leaching out of the plastic.

Mostly I'm just excited to make HUGE batches of hot sauce, sauerkraut, kimchi...

[Matt DeLaVega]

I wouldn't be concerned at all. I have nothing to back that up though, just a gut feeling.

[olaf]

That's my gut feeling too. We'll see in a month or two.

[Michael Wolfe]

Gerald is always telling us to add salt to our buckets anyway. I doubt there is much in there that would harm the fish. Im with Matt on saying is seems like it would not be a problem.

[UncleWillie]

I'm a bit late to the party, but I will chime in about the pickle buckets.  In 2015, coworkers and I bought every Firehouse Subs pickle bucket in about a 20 miles radius around our office.  We used them from everything from fish buckets, drift fence traps, trash cans, and junk holders.  These things were safe to use for all applications.  Didn't harm fish and didn't deter small mammals or herps.  But the pickle odor NEVER leaves those things.  The buckets used for drift fence traps were cleaned with all sorts of things like baking soda, dish soap, and vinegar, but the smell never went away.  I used two of these buckets for three straight years on an electrofishing boat for misc applications.  The odor did get toned down after about a year of hard use, but if the buckets were stacked at all, they would still emit pickle stank for several days afterward.  I haven't checked this year, but they still stunk in 2019.

[olaf]

I have a 55 gallon plastic barrel that was used to ship pickled pepperoncini from Italy or Greece. I use it every summer for brining whole pigs, and after over a decade it still smells exactly as much like pepperoncini as it did the day I got it. I've scrubbed all these buckets and it's done nothing for the smell, but thanks to my experience with the barrel I wasn't expecting it to. 

I am going to use some special cleaner and sanitizer to ready them for fermentation, and it's supposed to be miraculous. If it takes the pickle smell out then it will have proved it's the best.