Brodin

fine landing nets since 1978

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Pisces Carbon Fiber Net

This net promises to be our best net yet. It will be 33" overall length with a 12" by 18" hoop. Suitable for pontoon boats, drift boats or carrying on your back when a larger net is needed. The longer handle is great for extra reach and for tucking into your wader belt. The Pisces is 100% carbon…

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Here is a photo of our eco-clear net bag and an imported PVC bag that everyone else uses. The first thing to notice is that ours is clear and the other has a slight blue cast. That’s a giveaway that it contains polyvinyl chloride. If you are concerned about the environmental damage that PVC and its sidekick dioxin do, this is reason enough to not use these bags.

PVC bags are made soft by adding plasticizer to it. Eventually the plasticizers will leach away and harden the net bag. And before this happens the bag will start to turn yellow.

We have our net bags made in Montana so that we can have control over their production. It’s also a good excuse to visit our mould every once in a while.

[chrisbrodin]

New for 2016 and available in March is our Paragon Series. All of these nets have a cocobolo handle with mother of pearl measure marks, an inlaid mother of pearl fish head, and on the opposite side your initials inlaid in mother of pearl. Available in the Trout, Cutthroat, Gallatin, Frying Pan and Pere Marquette models only. Prices range from $215 to $250. Because these are customized nets, allow 3 to 4 weeks before delivery can be made.

[chrisbrodin]

Be careful where you store your net when you aren’t using it. Mice have a fondness for the material in the PVC bags and if you store your net in the garage or at the lake cabin, you are likely to find your net bag in this condition when you return.. We have had numerous reports of this happening. So far no reports on the eco-clear bags having this problem but we can’t guarantee that it won’t happen.

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Paula Shearer with a hefty Bow River brown. If you need a guide in Calgary she's a great one.

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This large brown caught by Toby Halley fits comfortably in our Pere Marquette model. 14″ by 19″ opening.

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The Montana Story: Forty Years of Success from North Fork Studios on Vimeo.

Although planting hatchery fish might seem like a good idea, it backfires. These fish are ill equipped to survive in a natural environment. Nice story by the Wild Fish Conservancy.

[eatmyflyoutfitters]

[chrisbrodin]

Almost everyone starts tying flies with the wooly bugger. Simple but still deadly. Here’s a live one examining one of our Stealth carbon fiber nets. Nice color match.

[chrisbrodin]

Our Stealth float tube net is extremely lightweight, featuring a slimmed down teak handle, eco-clear net bag and mother-of-pearl measure marks. Light enough to carry on your back when you need that extra reach.

[bginther]

Spring is near

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We were thinking of calling our eco-clear bags Everclear but that name has already been put to good use.

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Peekaboo

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Trout stay calm in a net as long as you leave them in the water. And it gives you enough time to get a great pic.

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Knotted leaders turn over nicely and can be adapted for different situations. The key to making them, of course, are good blood knots. A jig for tying the knots makes the process easier and more precise when making a lot of leaders. It can be easily made with four wooden clothes pins and a stand for holding them. Sand down the end of the pins so that they have a snub nose. The wood pins have the right amount of tension for holding the lines; plastic ones don’t work nearly as well.

Use a 1/4” dowel to make four turns of both lines at the same time. Insert the tag ends on opposite sides, remove and pull tight.

The main benefit of using a jig is that the leader segments can be made to the exact length needed. Precut the line segments and then figure out how much of the tag end needs to extend from the clothes pin when you insert the monofilament into the clothes pins. This will vary depending upon how far the pins are away from each other.

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Our Ghost Firehole model with the small size eco-clear net bag.

[chrisbrodin]

Eco-clear Net Bags

We think that it is important for you to know why we are switching over to a new material for our “ghost” bags. There are two reasons. One is functionality and the other is environmental responsibility.

All “ghost” nets up to this point have been manufactured in China and are made from a blend of plastics that include polyvinyl chloride- the same stuff of which your household plumbing is made. It is made softer by adding plasticizers to it. Eventually the plasticizer leaches out and the PVC regains its hardness, leaving the net bag yellow in the process. Our eco-clear bags are made in the USA and have a silicon base, similar to the same stuff used in baby pacifiers and IV bottles. They are very soft and easy on fish. Available in two sizes, small (34″ in circumference) that fits the Firehole and Trout models and medium (39″ in circumference) that fit the Cutthroat and Gallatin models. We plan to have more sizes in the future.

PVC is one of the nastiest plastics on the planet. The manufacturing of it, as well as the disposal, releases dioxin which is a known carcinogen and remains in the environment (and our bodies) for a long time. The less that we can use it the better. We should find alternatives for all of its uses.