Handy Pak Net

When I travel to Wyoming/Idaho/Montana, unless I’m fishing from a drift boat, I rarely, if ever, fish popular streams.  My preference is to hike for a few miles – leaving the suckers for a quick reward with their over-pressured holes.

I catch a lot of smaller fish for this exact reason, but that just doesn’t matter to me.  Solitude does.

It’s annoying to hike with a net hanging from my backpack for several miles.  It’s annoying to hike with a net hanging from my backpack for even a half mile.  …and there’s no room in my backpack for a net – Which usually holds my reel, a couple fly boxes, a Katadyn Pro Water Filter, an aero press mini, a small bag of coffee, some snacks, a water bottle, a trauma kit, rain jacket, fleece, and because I’m often wet wading, a complete change of clothes.

So I ordered one of these pak nets to use this year: https://www.handypaknetco.com

It fits snugly into an outer compartment of my backpack and it folds up.  It is still rigged the way we all rig our nets.  (or the way we SHOULD all be rigging our nets to our packs).

Now, the fact that it folds up should give you an idea of its limitation.  While the net itself has ~16.5″ length, it’s not very rigid.  Perfect for fish 14″ and under fish.

It worked very well and I highly recommend it to anyone who hikes into the backcountry to fish.

The mistake I made was not bringing my other net at all – and then I decided to fish Quake Lake for a few hours.  Quake is a very temperamental fishery and I don’t usually have the best luck, but this year….

I managed to pull a couple 16″+ browns out and this net was no match for them.  I managed to snap pictures while propping the net up with my knee so the fish didn’t fall out of it.  Hey, there are worse problems in the world!  I welcomed this challenge!

Anyway, here are a couple pictures showing browns that are too big for this net that you should all totally go and buy for backpacking.:)

Cheers,

-Jeff