Ep. 193: THIS COUNTRY LIFE - Fishing with Nets

Fishing with nets. There's two types of fishing when you're fishing with nets, commercial and recreational. Now I guess there's really four if you count catching fish and not catching fish, and we're going to talk a little about both of them today. But first I'm going to tell you a story. Now, this story has absolutely nothing to do with fishing nets, only a little bit to do with fishing. But fishing was what Tim and I started out doing before the

incident occurred. It was many years ago, during the middle of the week, and we had both found ourselves too sick to go to work, but not too sick to fish. What a coincidence, I know, right, both of us at the same time Anyway, we loaded tams boat with our fly rods and crickets, which is just about the best medicine ever invented, and we took off for the Salaine

River at Mount Elby. I know I've set it on here before, but the dot on the map that we all called Mount Elby has actually called Mount Elba Elba for the folks that like to look up the places of where I'm talking about. That was also the name of the boat ramp we were putting in at that would eventually be renamed in honor of my father, the

Lloyd Wilton Buddys Mount Elba Access. When I petitioned the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission with a letter of my family's legacy in that area and that place on the river to rename it after my father, I related how we generationally interacted with the land and the river over the past nine generations. I didn't include the story I'm about to tell you, but that day we backed the boat in, parked the truck, and took off. It was

hot that morning and we caught fish pretty quickly. We fished all the way down what we referred to as the Stretch, and that's the location on the river about three quarters of a mile along where the water deepened and the current slowed down in a long straightaway. At the end of the stretch is a place we call Bug Island. Now. When the river is at normal pool, it splits and wraps around the small island of willow trees, say, and the river rocks. It's shady and a perfect place

to stop and cook fish. I've been doing it all my life and planning to do so again and in their future. We took a fish cooker and everything you need and clean and cook the fish right there. They'd never touch a cube of ice and go from swimming in the river to swimming in the live well, to being cleaned in the river and then being released into three hundred and fifty degrees of hot peanut oil. If you have the means, I highly recommend it. We were

the only folks on the river that day. Everyone else was working, after all, it was the middle of the work week, but by the time we hit Bug Island it was close to noon in time to eat. It was also Africa hot, and the only relief from the bowl and sun was in the shade since there was no breeze. Still pretty hot under the trees and standing over that fire cooking fish didn't do anything towards cooling

us off. We got done eating, got everything thing cleaned up, and was sitting and staring at that running water that flowed around the island and sweating. And I told Tim man, I'm about to burn up in the shade, sitting here like a dummy wearing the bathing suit I was born with.

And with that we both stood up commenced to peeling off our sweat soaked t shirts and overalls until we were naked as pick birds, tenderfooting our way across the hot sand and rocks, until we waded out deep enough to cool off in the muddy water of our river. It might as well have been ours, we were the only folks on it. We swam around out in the deeper water for a while, then paddled our way back up to the shallow shoal that tapered off the bank

of Bug Island. We were fixing it, get out and get dressed and fish our way back to the truck. But then Tim scooped up a huge river mussel along the way, and we laid there on our stomachs in the shallow water admiring that huge fresh water mussel, our lily white behind glowing above the surface of the water. I heard a noise behind us that sounded oddly like a boat paddle bumping the side of a boat. Judging from the look of hard that washed over Tim's face,

he'd heard it too. Then out of the blue, y'all catching any fish. We looked back over our shoulders at the same time to see an older couple float by with fishing poles in their hands and big smiles on their faces. I don't know what happened next, or what they did. I slid under the surface, backed out into deeper water, and only came up to take a peek to see when they were gone. When I could no

longer hold my breath. Tim had done the same. I'm sorry, mister and missus whoever you were, but with two teas, that's just how that happened. Fishing with nets commercial fishermen have always intrigued me. There's just something about making a living catching fish that appeals to kids, and that's when my attraction began. I mentioned Carls one stopping last week's episode. It was the bait shop on the edge of town, where not only could you buy a bait and tackle,

but also turkey calls, duck calls, and ammo. You'd also see the commercial fishermen in the area, stopping by the visit or pickup supplies, or meeting folks that had ordered fish, seeing those big hoop nets in the boat, and knowing that guy was paying his light bills with fish he'd caught from the river. Now, walk could be better than that, I dare say nothing. That's got to be the easiest

job there is. Right now, anyone that's listening that has ever had even the smallest experience of fishing a hoop net knows that I have finally done it. After all most a year of telling stories and talking about country living on this platform, I have finally said the dumbest thing I'm ever going to say by suggesting that easy is an adjective that describes any portion of commercial fishermen. There was a time when I thought being a duck guide would be a great idea. Who wouldn't want to

get paid to go duck hunting? And there's always more to the story. Duck hunting, in a way was what brought my brother Tim and I to net fishing. We talked about it forever. But over twenty five years ago we met a man from Louisiana when he came up with a group to hunt with us, and his name was Jerry Boger. Now, Jerry would later start bringing his son, Zach, along with others over the years, and he and his family became instant friends of ours, and they have remained

just like our family ever since. I can go months without talking to Jerry and pick up the phone and give him a call and it's just like I talked to him yesterday. Where am I going with this? Well? Jerry Boger is a good fisherman, and most assuredly he's the best net fisherman I know. And it was his advice and tutelage that inspired my brother Tim to call me one day and say, I'm buying some hoop nets and we're gonna start fishing them in the Arkansas River.

You gonna be my help. I don't recall there being a question as to whether or not I'd be participating, So after checking the Arkansas regulations on fishing nets, Tim bought three wire hoop nets and some bait from the good folks down at Nets and more. The fish net company in Jonesville, los Inna. He brought them back home, sent me a picture of lane in his yard and I'd never seen wire nets before, but man, they look cool.

I was excited. But it was like ordering the Charles Atley strong Man course from the back of a comic book, and when the mail man delivers it, you realize the muscles ain't included. What do we do with them? Now? First, let's talk about what a hoop net is. Imagine a dip net that you'd use to boat of fish after you caught him with a rod and a rill, but instead of having a shallow bottom in it, think about it being three and a half feet in diameter and

fourteen feet long. About every two feet is going to be a round fiberglass hoop that holds the net in position, giving it a cylindrical tube shape when both ends are weighted with a head rope and a tail rope and stretched tightly between the two weights. And there's all kinds of different diameters, meshing sizes and links of hoop nets. This is just an example, but they all have what's called a throat inside or flu where a separate mesh funnel gradually narrows down into an opening that fish can

easily swim in through, but can't easily swim out of. Now, once it gets in there, you got him, unless he's small enough to swim out through the mesh of the net, which is why there are mesh sized regulations on the net so the small fish can get out. Now. These contraptions are strictly made for rough fish like buffalo and drum. And while catfish is a game fish in Arkansas, it's the only one that can be harvested using a net

or a trap. Bring them under four inches can be called in a basket trap and used as live bait for flathead catfish. And that's a whole other podcast and one we're planning on doing lately this year. But this hoop net I've talked about, ain't going to catch fish until we get it in the water. So where do we fish it? Remember Jerry from Louisiana, Well, Jerry will tell you that when you're fishing in current and the river is inside its banks, that you've got to find

those eddies to conceal instantly catch fish. A fish can obviously swim anywhere it wants to, but they have travel patterns and tendencies, just like all creatures. They like gathering in those eddies. What's an eddy? Well, how about I tell you what one is. The definition of an eddy is a circular movement of water counter to a main current, causing a small whirlpool. Now let me describe it to you like this. Men, you were sitting in a boat

facing up river. The river in front of us has a curve that bends around to the right and continues on the downstream. Side of that curve is where the eddy forms. As the current comes around that bend, it forms a circular motion known as an eddy. Fish congregate there to catch bait, fish and groceries that get swept up it concentrated in the water. It also gets them out of the strong curve and allow them to rest

while they eat. Survival is the name of the game and in justin calories, while expending the minimal mountain necessary to do so is priority numero uno. But you can't just find an eddie, weight both ends and chunk your net in the river. That's no pointo. You're gonna have to drag and sound check the depth of the water to see if there's any obstacles. In there that could damage or keep your net from laying out properly. And

I'm sure those garment depth and so on. Our units like Claying I had on our big CEA arc boat last January would easily do the trick. But if you find yourself out of modern technology, a net drag on a long rope will do the trick. Most net drags that I've seen are around sixteen to eighteen inches long and made a solid round inch and a half steal

on the bottom. They'll have four pieces of quarter inch rod at even intervals bent in the shape of a U, and well that to the shaft that look like a grappling hook on the other end as well, that an eye to attach a rope, and you'll use it to drag across the bottom looking for obstacles like tree tops or somebody else's net, or anything that could damage or

keep your net from fishing properly. You're also going to need that drag to pull your net up when it's time to check it and you're looking for a clean shelf or a bottom where you can lay your net out flat on the bottom like a cardboard paper towel tube. Here's a little something extra at my house. All my kids call those tubes dut does because they could never pick an empty one up to play with it without sticking it to their mouth and going dut to door. Do you alls kids do that or mind? The only

ones probably just mine. I live in a circus. All right, let's get this thing in the water. We're going to need a heavy anchor and a long length of rope rope that's tied to the head and the tail is dependent upon the depth of the water. Jerry likes to use five sixteenth hollow braided line for a big hoop net. He's gonna use about thirty pounds of weight or more. That's gonna be on the anchor, and that's gonna go on the tail end of the net, and it's always

pointed upstream. Get your weight in the line and then the tail end of the net. We start feeding that net out, tail in first, and we're gonna float downstream. Take all the slack out of that net, and to link the rope we've got tied to the head end. That rope is attached to a rope that's called a bridle, and it goes from one side of the coop to the other on the front, kind of like a handle of a bucket. The head rope is tied right in

the middle. Stay with me now, because we're gonna review this and get squared away in your brain bucket in just a minute. Pulling further downstream about thirty to forty feet, if not further, We're going to attach a small weight around ten pounds, and from that weight we're gonna run a twenty foot line with two to three pound weight with a float tied in the middle. Now, this keeps the rope off the bottom and makes it easier to

catch with a drag. It doesn't take long for salt to cover a rope up, and that makes it hard to find. The float sure makes it easier. Now, I know what you're saying. Why don't you just run a float from the weight on the headline to the surface to be easy to run without even having to worry about using the drag. Well, let me tell you why, the same reason you like your truck. When you park it and walk away, folks will not only covet your hoop nets, but they will also run them, steal your

fish and take your nets. All right, erase the blackboard and you'll cranium un let's review it. We found an eddy that has a clean bottom where we can place her hoop net. On the tail end of our net, we attached a long length of rope and a big anchor. Splash goes the anchor, and now we're slowly motoring or floating backwards down the river, letting the net pull out of the boat slowly as we hold a little tension, so it goes in the water like it's fishing already.

Letting the head rope out, we dropped a ten pound weight, followed by the float and the rest of the rope with a small weight. Now it's time to go do whatever and be confident that while you're occupied with some other activity that you're also fishing. With every tick of the clock, I'm on the yard, also fishing, eating supper, also fishing, slumbering in the bed, also fishing. The hardest part for me in tim was not going back to check our nets. You gotta let them fish, and time

is on your side. If you remember, we didn't bait this net. We're catching fish that are just out making a living and doing their thing, swimming upstream. Now they'll still be snacking grub as it floats downstreaming into the water column there brought them there in the first place. We're just going to have them hemmed up where we're fishing, and they'll be just as healthy and full of vigor when we run the net a minimum five days from when we set it. So after a week we're going

to head back to the river. We're going to chunk our drag in to catch a hold of that headline. We put it out tail then first, so we're going to do just the opposite to run it. And when you throw your drag out, you're aiming for the head rope that's the end with the little float holding the line off the bottom, so it wouldn't get sealted in. Now you don't have to do that it, So don't be hollering at me about this is wrong and it

ain't the way your grandpa did it. While I'm interested in hearing how you did it, I ain't about to listen to anything I've described here is wrong because it ain't. Now how do I know it ain't well, Jerry's son, Zach, owns one of the best restaurants in Louisiana, and I understand that's a bold statement because there are a lot of great places deed down there. But they run fish through that restaurant faster than grass runs through a goose.

And Jerry provides a large portion of the fish, and this is how he catches them, and they feed a lot of folks. It's called Big Zach's Place at Logusport, Louisiana. Y'all check it out and tell them I sent you. But guess what, we ain't done yet. Me and Tim don't even fish the county nets that I just described we're going to, But right now we're fishing that big nets little brother, which works the same way, but it's

a lot easier to handle, and we use bait. The wire nets we fish are eighteen inches in diameter and four feet long. They're the same as regular hoop nets, except there's no hoops. The net mesh is held in place by wire on the inside, which is concer great reinforcement wire. You just bend it into a loop. You can fish them several ways, one of which is how I just described with a big hoop net. Another way is to suspend it vertically beneath the water with a

throat facing down above the bottom. Fish will feed upwards drawn it into the net by the bait, and you can also just bait it up and chunk it overboard in a good spot you've already picked out. Now, the bait we use is usually soy beans and cheese mashed them into a big old block, and we put it in a mesh bag and throw it inside and it slowly dissolves. It leaves a scent trail of food downstream, and as the fish feed upstream they follow it into

the net. Tim and I fish ours and current, always with a mouth facing downstream and anchor tie off the tail. That's pretty simple, in a very effective way to catch fish. It's also a lot of fun and we have a great time doing it. I be interested in do it. Check your regulations where you live. Hit the folks up down there in Jones, Louisiana, and you will get you

a net that you can fish. Hey, I hope you all enjoyed the Squirrels and coons in Arkansas film Clay Bow and I did over on the Made Eater YouTube channel. If you haven't seen it, hop on over and check it out. Clay's Alaska Wolf episode dropped this week too. Man, it's good. We got two more loaded and ready to fly and they'll be dropping over the next two weeks on Tuesdays. We'll also be at the Black Beary Bananza in Bentonville, Arkansas, on March the ninth. Tickets are available

on their website. You just search Black Bearry Bonanza and you'll see the link. It's gonna be a lot of fun. There's gonna be some great demonstrations. We're gonna record a podcast. I'll be MCing the al Hooton contest and get ready for this Case Knives will have a booth there, and my friend John Pantusso and my fellow ar Kansen Chris Taylor will be there too. Chris is a knife maker and has designed to build three skin and knives for case.

I got all three of man something special. Rince the youngins off, help Grandpa find his teeth, and y'all come see us. It's going to be a good time until next week. This is Bret Reeves signing off. Y'all be careful.