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Posts: 568
Location: Lake St Clair | Almost lost the net last year so i figured now is the time.
whos done it? anything i should know before i start this? |
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Posts: 238
Location: Rhinelander | Spray foam either end. |
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Posts: 866
Location: NE Ohio | i bought one from the $1 store then cut length wise to a size that fit inside the handle then i used a floating measuring stick to shove it down into the handle. i cut them about 2' long and packed them in tight. works great and very cheap! |
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Posts: 246
| Hodag Hunter - 4/30/2017 8:26 PM
Spray foam either end.
What I did to a couple nets and it saved me a couple times. |
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Posts: 77
Location: Southwest Pa | I've never heard of this. Loosing nets a common thing? Wait...shove a pool noodle inside of my big kahuna? This will allow it to float......? |
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Posts: 897
| I lost a net over the side while taking pics. Cost my buddy a four footer and me a 45 on the next spot. It happens. Spray foam both ends of the tube and you're set |
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Posts: 735
Location: Apparently where the Muskie aren't | Try doing the noodle and the spray foam. It's double the floatations and the noodle will act as a cushion against your boat and it also won't slide around if you are using the net yourself and use the boat to get leverage. |
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Posts: 489
| I cut a short 6" section of noodle and put it on my handle. It doesn't get in the way one bit |
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Posts: 1168
| No pool noodle for me. I have a u-bolt that pops up out of the deck that I can slide my net handle into. With the net secure like this the bag hangs deep enough in the water and I have both hands free to work on a fish. Much better than trying to kneel on a net or have one hand committed to hanging on to it. You could also have a rope tied off to a cleat or something else in the boat with a loop on the end to hold the net in place. |
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Posts: 157
Location: West Central WI | Almost lost my Frabil over the side once. Then, I tested next to shore. It took no time at all before the handle filled and it sunk. I took a foam noodle that has the hole in the center and cut a 4" section and cut a slice lengthwise through the side to the open center. Wrapped around the handle just forward of where I hold it and used duct tape to hold together. Then, cut two 12" sections and cut to the center and wrapped around the basket frame from the outside and duct taped those just either side of where the handle goes though. Probably way more than needed, but I'll never lose that net. The two pieces around the basket are rarely in the water when netting a fish so they don't affect how it handles in the water. I'm recalling a Keyes Outdoors episode where you see the net disappearing over the side after the fish was lifted out for measurement. I'm amazed that flotation is not built into nets with the price that we pay.
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 Net.jpg (89KB - 464 downloads)
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Posts: 568
Location: Lake St Clair | cool, thanks guys
rotorhead i also like this idea |
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Posts: 1144
Location: Minnesota. | Interesting thread. This sort of stuff just doesn't happen to me................
'Cept for that time on the Big V., fishing solo, when a big storm a long ways off crept up behind me faster than I'd guessed and didn't look bad so I thought it would "slide off" to the east. Then the wind came so I decided to run for it. Wave bounce - going into that wind and bada-durn- boom!!! That net sunk faster than I could turn around!
I might try this foam sometime but then again - this sort'a stuff doesn't happen to me....................;) |
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| Never was a fan of the foam wrap on the hoop. Made scooping a fish more challenging & the foam was a lot more surface area for hooks to grab as a fish was being netted. Fill the handle with spray foam. Get a can of Great Stuff foam and a 3' to 4' section of small diameter plumbers tubing, small enough that the tubing fits onto the Great Stuff nozzle. One last note when doing this, at least for a Big Kahuna like I have: completely remove the handle from the hoop by depressing that lock pin. Remove the lock pin mechanism from the handle and place a wad of something behind it like a paper towel or Styrofoam and put the pin mechanism back in. When filling the handle, take the handle cap off the other end of the handle and place the end of the plumber tubing into the handle and slowly pull out as you fill with Great Stuff. The wad of paper towel at the other end prevents foam from filling up the end of the handle where the locking pin mechanism is and completely inhibiting it from working. I have another Frabil net that I filled the entire hoop with Great Stuff as well. Both methods have worked well. Lastly, wrap some bright orange duct tape around the end of the handle or part of the hoop. Makes finding a net once it's gone overboard easier  |
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Posts: 1638
Location: Minnesota | I have a Beckman sprayed expandable foam through th hoop and in the handle lost it last year while releasing a fish. Looked back and seen a stick 1 foot out of the water dident remember seeing that when I went by looked down no net. Turned around got my net back . |
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Posts: 158
| Tie a small length of rope on the end of your net handle with a caribeaner on the other end to tie off on the opposite side of the boat when you get a fish. Makes working on a fish solo or even with somone else so much easier....and eliminates the problem of the net ever falling in the lake. |
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Posts: 1887
Location: syracuse indiana | For the frabill it's so easy just pop the handle off and remove both end caps And the hole stopper out then take electrical tape and cover one of the ends and both hole stops with it then in the other end cover it too with the tape then poke a hole I the middle to get the tube from the spray foam in it and start filling it up tap the handle while filling it up when it's full ( pressure on the fill side) take the hose out and set it all to the side to cure your have some come out while its expanding Let sit for 24 hrs then remove tape clean up everything and take a knife and cut out the set foam on one of the end prices for the stopper and make sure that it's free and replace end caps and put net back together and your net will float I have done this with all my kahunas and they will never sink |
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Posts: 399
Location: WI | I just took the rubber grip off and filled the whole tube with pipe wrap insulation, then replaced the grip. The Frabill 8425 floats just fine. |
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Location: Ontario | Emptynet - 5/5/2017 9:01 PM
I just took the rubber grip off and filled the whole tube with pipe wrap insulation, then replaced the grip. The Frabill 8425 floats just fine.
Nothing around the hoop it self?
Thanks |
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Posts: 399
Location: WI | Nothing around the hoop. That's just more chances for a hook to get snagged and a fish to got off without getting it's picture taken. |
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Location: Ontario | ^ Thanks |
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Posts: 157
Location: West Central WI | In my entry above, I included a photo of the blue noodle foam around the net bag. I think there are some good ideas here and I was thinking of injecting some of the canned foam insulation into each end of the net handle myself. I added the blue foam as a quick fix before going to Canada one year, thinking that if the net was lost overboard, that would be more than inconvenient during a great trip. There were a couple of comments about the foam regarding catching hooks or making it more difficult to scoop a fish. The catching hooks thing sometimes happens on any net or basket rim itself during neting evolutions so the noodle is no worse than what you have already. The scooping issue would be a problem if the entire net basket hoop would be covered with foam. Think of how you put a net into the water. The front of the net goes in and rarely does the back of the net go completely in (watch any Keyes Outdoors video or other muskie video for reference). By keeping the foam limited to just the back end (just enough to float it) the net is easy to submerge and maneuver just as you do now. Since there’s never been an issue with this setup, I’ve never had the reason to modify to even less foam although I suspect it would float with just half the noodle that’s on it now. It’s a quick fix that’s never let me (and others in my boat) down for three years so give it a try if you’re inclined this way. This is just one option of several good ones in this string. Regardless, you should pick one of these to avoid losing a net over the side. Ok, my “fix” may be ugly, but I’m not proud because it works – lol. |
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