When fishing a shoreline with a drop-off edge it can be difficult landing anything over a pound since you have to pull the fish up by the line, or step off into the water, or reach way over while trying not to fall in.
I may have found something to help with that situation. It is Frabill‘s Trophy Haul landing net. Most of the time if you needed such a net you would have to have some sort of long handle, or if it was collapsible you would have to push on a hard metal knob, which doesn’t always release properly. With the trophy haul you can pull the handle until it has a positive click without having to push any buttons. Then when you want to collapse it push on an easy to use plastic release that is on the back side.
For one handed operation, such as I have to do a lot, I will step on the front of the hoop and pull the handle upward until it clicks in place.
There is also a handle to be used for two-hand landings for very large fish where another angler can help in the landing.
It has fish-friendly conservation netting, and a heavy duty metal hoop.
Stay tuned for when I start using this net in Dan’s Fish ‘N’ Tales® videos.
Until next time, get out on the water, and enjoy a great day of fishing.
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I’ve had collapsable landing nets in the past, which have fit nicely in the center storage of my Ranger’s front deck, but it would take two hands to put it together. Because of that I always pre-assembled and extended the handle, which could be in the way in the boat.
Now Frabill has come up with a design called the Bearclaw. It will fit easily into most larger front deck storage compartments, and can stay collapsed and laying on the deck, or standing up along a side in the bottom of a boat, positioned so it can be grabbed one handed and flipped open.
When opening it the hand grips a center handle, and an upper rest goes under the for arm making like an extension of a person’s arm. You can then have the rod in one hand, and the net in the other to land the fish.
These units are also available with LED lights for night or very early morning fishing. However, mine is the one without lights.
There will be more on the use of this net once we start having open water conditions, including a Dan’s Fish ‘N’ Tales® video.
Until next time, get out on the water, and enjoy a great day of fishing.
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I’ve always wanted an expandable bump board that covers a long range of measures. Frabill has that covered with their unit that measures from 5 to 36 inches.
When closed it will measure up to 19 inches, which in most cases will work for minimum lengths for many species. There is also a dished out channel down the middle which makes it very nice for measuring the fish.
It is made of heavy plastic, and has a good positive locking button so that it will not slide out on its own. However, it will take two hands to push down on the button and pull out on the end slide.
It also has floatation in the front, so if dropped overboard it will float.
For something stronger I got the Frabill model 1553 Benchmark 32-inch bump board. This is a lot like the old Golden Rule, but the markings and numbers are much more visible. The are well stamped into the product for years of wear.
I’m planning on putting the floating Expandable model in my Ranger Boats 362, and the Benchmark in the Yukon for shore fishing.
Until next time, get out on the water, and enjoy a great day of fishing.
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Here is my new Frabill weigh-in bag. It is mainly developed for tournaments, but I plan on using it for photographs.
Whenever I catch a fish that I want photographed it has to either be laid on the deck or ground, or place in a live well. With this new bag I can keep it out and filled with water ready to use, and drop the fish in the mesh bag insert.
If I want to weigh the fish I can hook my Normark or Berkley Fishing scales on the handle, and it is complete without damage to the fish. With the Berkley scales it has a tear weight feature, so that will help with the bag, but otherwise just subtract the weight of the bag, which is a dry weight of 10 ounces.
I’ll be having more on this during the open water season, including a video.
Stay tuned for more Frabill and Plano products.
Until next time, get out on the water, and enjoy a great day of fishing.
#frabillweighinbagfortournamentsandcatchandreleasephotographs