Made in Scotland

When I was twelve I spent most of the summer on the banks of the River Irvine placing bets on who would catch the first fish of the day. When I finally hooked it all eyes were on me but unfortunately I never had a landing net back then so I tried to drag the fish onto the bank and it managed to escape.  I will never forget how disappointed I was!

The summer passed and my focus moved on to other interests.  By the age of 14 I was spending most of my time at the local scrap yard gathering spare parts from motorbikes.  As my collection grew I decided I would try and build a bike myself.  Looking back I recall running up and down the old coal mine slagheap on my 'new bike' feeling a massive sense of achievement and it was at this point that I decided I wanted to be an engineer.

Shortly after finishing my apprenticeship I started my own business and throughout my career I have done many things that I am extremely proud of.  I was contracted by the MOD to develop and manufacture the tooling system which produced the drive propellant for the Exocet missile.  I also developed the air bag system we have in our cars today.  And I invented the SFA portable lightweight seven aside goalpost system which involved creating not only the manufacturing production line and the product itself but also creating a British standard for safe portable goalpost systems.  
 
Come 34 I took my family on a well deserved holiday to Florida and whilst there my son asked if I would take him fishing.  This simple request brought back some wonderful memories from the summer spent on the banks of the River Irvine.  My son was ten at the time and I am proud to say that to this day he is still, like me, hooked! 

On our return we joined the local angling club and spent many happy hours, on the rivers, banks, lochs and fisheries in Scotland. A group of us would travel to Baden Loch Estate in Sutherland once a year and Bill, a dear friend of mine, would do the driving as well as ensure we had enough supplies of food and drink for the long journey.  Bill was diagnosed with cancer in his late 60’s and as a result muscle was removed from his left hand side which unfortunately affected his strength.  However, Bill did not let this stop him from fishing, even though he had difficulty landing his catch.  It was because of Bill that I decided to design a perfectly balanced, lightweight, very strong net and on presentation his new Trout Gye landing net he was ecstatic; even more so when he easily landed his next catch.
The net soon created a buzz at my local angling club in Ayrshire and also came to the attention of the Managing Director of Wilko Sports who was so impressed he decided to set me the following challenge...

“If you can design and build a salmon gye net weighing less than one kilo that can land a salmon in excess of 30lb of this quality it will be by far the best salmon net on the market.” 

He believed this to be an impossible challenge and was delighted when I presented him with a Salmon Gye landing net that weighed a mere 780gms and had the potential to land a salmon in excess of 40lb!
 
By this time my son was a time-served engineer working alongside me and it was our dedication to the art of angling and our passion for engineering that resulted in the design and manufacture of the full Fastnet range of ‘Lighter, Stronger, Smarter’ landing nets you see today.

I hope my experience in product design, development and manufacturing can bring you as much joy as it has brought to me over the years.
 
"Tight Lines"
    
Robert Cairns, Fastnet Developments