Making a landing net from scratch

I know this is not directly crappie related, but here goes...

We have some very ill parents, an have been taking turns sitting with them. Reading the fishing forums and watching YouTube helps pass the time, though.

Last year, my landing net got torn and I was not happy with e selection of nets locally, nor the crazy prices they wanted for them. So I decided to make my own, while sitting around parent-sitting.

When I was a kid, I watched an old man making a cast net using a ruler and net needle. I bought a needle and a spool of 15# test and eventually made a little 3' cast net that I used to get the minnows that would hide under the docks between pilings. Later, I made a custom shrimp net for dipping off the bridges at night in FL. So a landing net should be easy, right?

So I ordered some stuff from Netcraft and tried to remember how to get started. After several false starts, it finally started coming back to me, and after a while, I was moving along pretty good, but nowhere near as fast as when I was a teenager. Anyway, I finished my first landing net bag this afternoon:
Attachment 196975

Next, to find some 3/8" solid aluminum rod. It only weighs a little more than the typical net tubing, but it lasts a lifetime, and it cuts the water so well, that once you use a net made from one, you never want to go back. Mounting that on a window-washing extension handle should give me a super-high quality net that will effortlessly swipe up fish even from way out.

I'm excited! Will post pictures once it's done.

Sometimes, to get good stuff, you have to make it yourself.

-Tony

Great job on the net.

Thill you have more patience than me. I bought a gauge and needle like that and a book on how to make nets and repair them. I found out real quick that it was not for me. I used hoop nets for a while on the river catfishing years ago and had to repair holes in them. Just never got the hang of it. My repairs did not look very good but I did manage to stop up the holes. Your net looks real good and like you said when you make something yourself it's just better.