Hey …. I’ve got a new product for you fly-guys to try out. It is a floating release net made by the folks from Wind Paddle. They reside in Hood River, Oregon and the owner of the company is Nick Wiltz.
I was able to give the product a try (and make a video for you .. see it below) this past Sunday, February 7th on a small lake here in my area of southern Indiana. I have to say that I am most pleased with this floating fish net … the design is genius. In the hour or so that I fished (water temps were 42) I was able to catch and safely release over a dozen bass. In fact at one point I kept five bass in the net for over 30 minutes to see if indeed the upper nine inches of solid black curtain would keep them from jumping out … and it did! I might add that it was quite windy while giving the test run, I wondered if the net would create any large amounts of drag … but once again I didn’t even know the net was clipped to my float tube.
I loved the fact that I could easily lift my line and fish over the rim of the floating net and then carefully release the fish within. With the bass I was catching … I simply lipped the fish and then dropped them into the large, 29 inch opening. Secondly, the fish had plenty of room to swim around in (see my video) as the net is also 24 inches deep. When you consider that the net only weighs in at 12 ounces … I am not sure how you could go wrong.
I haven’t yet had an opportunity to fish the floating “release-right” net in moving water but I am excited to see how it does … I am quite confident that it will do very well as the design is so quick and easy to deploy.
You can buy the WindPaddle Fishing Net on Amazon.com
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