Net works Fastnet Landing Nets

(June 2009 Edition, Fly-Fishing & Fly-Tying Magazine)

Refreshing!  Fastnet is a small Scottish engineering company.  A friend of the owner needed a light net, so he made one.  The first net was Gye style: a metal hoop fixed to a block which slides along a metal shaft.  Sounds simple?  How do you make a light but strong net?  Light is easy but normally means flimsy.  Strong is easy but normally means heavy.

The engineers answer is to look at materials and shapes.  For example, the aluminium hoop on conventional rigid metal nets is commonly formed from either tubing or flat aluminium strip.  Fastnet has opted to make its net-hoops from a 'diamond'-shaped aluminium extrusion, age-hardened and tempered to maximise strength.

Similarily, the sliding block on Gye-style nets normally means either a heavy block of metal or suspiciously fragile plastic moulding.  Fastnet settle on an engineering resin, glass filled nylon, for its combination of strength and weight.  Glass-filled nylon brings the added benefits complicated shapes can be moulded rather than machined and, not least, nylon slides on aluminium rather well.  The net effect is a better mousetrap! (Sorry, that just came out...).

From its first Gye net, Fastnet's range of landing nets evolved as word spread and local demand grew.  Its current range is extensive with twelve net types.  Most are avilable in a choice of size.

Fastnet Superior Salmon Gye

At 26", sitting next to a trout net, this is huge, but is exactly what landing a salmon needs.  If you have used a Gye, using this is completely conventional.  Slide the head down the shaft, the tip of the shaft is slightly flared so the net wedges in place.  Slides smoothly enough.  Unlike my old salmon net I can free the wedged head and slide this back up again without needing to whack the butt on the ground.

Just over six feet from butt to rim.  Like the trout net this has short full-wells style cork grip.  Of course a big salmon net really needs two hands and an assistant.  But we've all been in situations where playing and landing your own fish is the only way.  I want light and easy and this net is far lighter than my old one and the head seems to slip into position more easily.

As standard, the Fastnet Gye comes with that familiar bungee lanyard.  As an accessory for a very reasonable £7.95, they supply a Peel Sling, essential if you are fishing alone and need the net on your back where you can get at it.

A REVIEW BY MAGNUS ANGUS