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Posts: 470
| Hey all,
I'm Sure everyone is getting tired of reading my reviews today, but I have a couple more I'd like to share.
Disclaimer: I'm not a professional Musky guide or someone who sells tackle for a living. I'm like a lot of guys, I fish on weekends and whenever I get the opportunity to jump on the boat and get out there. I'm not telling anyone to run out and buy this particular net and I don't get anything from anyone for posting this; I just want to share my experiences with the forum.
2015 has been the first year I've really put some serious time into catching muskies. I've been out on guide trips and spent a week here and there over the summer fishing in Northern Wisconsin and In my home state of Indiana. I've been a Muskie nut since 1982 when I caught my first one in Vilas County Wisconsin. My family had no idea how deep the obsession went until just recently. As my fishing obsession ramped up several years ago (and we bought a boat) my family bought me a landing net. It was some generic brand with an expandable 8' pole and I believe it was for salmon or catfish or something. It had big knots and rough mesh but it seemed it would be ok for my fishing (here's the error in my thinking again..). I was out earlier this year and stuck a 31" fish on a bucktail in the 8. Got it in my sub standard net and it proceeded to roll up and get it's teeth into the mesh. It proceeded to cut the mesh and make a hole in the net. After having to cut almost all the hooks off the bucktail to get them unstuck from the mesh I released the fish. I noticed it appeared to be all scratched up from the mesh as well. All of these things were unacceptable to me.
I did a bunch of research on the forum and the web and had several nets that fit what I needed. Mainly, a net that was 1) Easy on the fish's body, 2) Deep enough to handle bigger fish 3) Hook resistant, 4) Light weight and 5) Collapsible
I chose the Frabil 9530 Conservation series net.
It's rare to find any product in this day and age that you are 100% satisfied with but I have had no reason not to like the 9530. As a matter of fact, the only complaint I can even think of was the fact the mesh was stuck together when it arrived and required my to separate it for first use. Big deal.
I've now boated multiple fish with this net, including a couple of larger girls and others while fishing by myself. It's night and day better that what I had. I've seen no mesh damage on any of the fish and I haven't had one hook caught in it yet. It's also easy to manage and even my kids think it's crazy light.
Considering I bought it on Amazon.com for $149 it was only $49 more than the crappy one I had before but night and day different.
I can't really speak to durability, I've only had it a couple of months, but there have been no issues or wear visible on it.
HTH,
RandalB | |
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Equipment Review: Frabil Conservation Series Landing Net- #9530