Traditional square Smelt net

[davey buoy]

Seemed to have lost my net and pole somewhere over the years. CT has a 6' pole with 3'bag,something like a oversized fish net. Anyone used one of these and how did they work?. They have these on for $26.99. Thanks .

[Nipfisher]

Good for 1 season if you don't drag the bottom when you are scooping.

[Ralph Field]

I use a 6'x6' square smelt net for catching minnows for perch fishing. The holes are quite small like the old square 3'x3' minnow nets that CT sells.

[davey buoy]

Wish I would of kept better track of my old net. It may also of been a 6'x6 as well. Just thinking that oversized fishing net for smelt may be my best bet for a night or two this season.

[Sinker]

Lebarrons usually has the 6x6 nets and frames. Your supposed to use the bigger mesh for smelts, I think it might even be written in the regs somewhere. I know 6x6 is as big as u can go. I just dusted mine off today, might giver a whirll this week.

 

S.

[Canuck2fan]

Make sure if you buy the ranger net from lebaron that you take the time to do two things to make it last.

 

1) Replace the nut on the top eyebolt with a locking nylon nut otherwise no matter how you try to tighten the one that comes with it will come apart in the water. Resulting in you pulling up the eyebolt and the top piece of metal and nothing else....

 

2) On the head drill 4 holes and use 4 small bolts with nylon locker nuts to hold the head together.... Other wise the pressure of dragging the net will separate the two plates of the head and you will lose one or more of the arms.

 

The above 2 things are a minimum if you want do more than 5 pulls for minnows or smelt. I can't count the number of times I have watched people take their new net out of the package at Port Bruce only to have it ruined by a lost piece after less than a dozen pulls. It isn't even fun telling them I told you so any more, after I explain what will happen and they should just borrow mine until they make the proper add ons to theirs, and they say it will be all right.... LOL

 

If you have access to someone with a welder that will work on the type of metal in the head, once you have the hole drills assemble the arms fold them down (remove the locking nuts though the nylon melts) and have it welded along the outside edge making sure you extend and retract the arms. I had this done on mine and have used it a few hundred times with no issues....

 

While a pain to do the mods it was a lot cheaper than buying the 120.00 nets for sale along the lake Erie shore by a couple of people. They are indestructable but you can still lose em LOL Another tip is to buy a buoy at CTC and put it on the rope just below where you have the loop for your hand to go through. That way if you do let it go the buoy will float up so you can stag the line with a treble hook on a lure. That 8.00 buoy has saved my net at least 5 times when it has been thrown in by people borrowing it....