The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

These cane landing net handles certainly look great and fit in with vintage tackle, not sure Tom Dove or Neil Spooner would be converts!!

I've been making landing nets and handles for some years now. Unfortunately for the last 2 years my workshop has been shut down whilst a new house extension which incorporates a new workshop is built. I reckon it will be finished by the end of this year then another 6 months to re-kit it out.

However these are some of the handles which have gone out of the door to new owners, some being TFFer's and some to the wider Traditional community. Cane is a very light and useable material and very much underrated. Plus it looks a lot nicer than alloy, fibreglass or more modern materials.

This one is a Multi handle, featuring two piece main handle of 6' plus a further 15" extension which enables it to be used as a boat net or wading net. The smaller extension also doubles up as a priest or can be fitted to the main handle to give 7'+. It features a screw out butt cap. The net head is a special lightweight one.







This net was made for the TFF Photo competition some years ago. I got permission from Mark to use the TFF logo embedded in the butt cap. It is a one off never to be repeated. From memory the winner was Old Man Oakley and resides with him.





This is another TFF prize net which was prize in Ashby Cut's charity Pin and Cane Match. A one piece slim lightweight handle of 6'. The winner was Jardine who is now AWOL somewhere in Thailand I believe. All prize handles are annotated with the competition and date.







This one was the last commission before my workshop closed down. One of the fun parts of making things for other people is building to their specific requirements. Often it involves using colours, patterns or components that you wouldn't usually go near, but are pleasantly surprised with the results which look good. This handle was specified to have a brass butt cap with rubber button and a specific sage green silk. All handles have individual logos or annotations as per the commissionee's requirements.









This one was made as a thank you for someone who gave access to a special water. A plain but rich flamed finish. 6' slim one piece construction.

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Stouter one piece handles around the one inch diameter are also used for Richard Walker style nets. These are normally plain flamed and around 6' long but are incredibly light. These are !00% replicas of RW or B James version nets. The B James variants are very plain.





A before and after pic showing the culm beside a finished handle for a B James version.



Occasionally there are requests for a pure custom build and fun can be had with flaming patterns. This is a unique one off scale patterned RW net. The scale pattern was taken off a chestnut linear Leney fish that I had caught. The pictures aren't that good unfortunately.







And whilst on the subjects of landing net handles here's one I didn't make but is the stuff of legends. Jack Hiltons Walker net handle.



Neil

Exquisite dear chap... utterly exquisite... I wish I possessed a quarter of your talent...

Great works of aret Neil, not long now til your workshop is up and running

They certainly do look much nicer than alloy handles , lovely craftmanship skills Neil
John

Very nice traditional handles, good skills

Absolutely stunning Neil those are up there with the best I've seen

Always lovely to see the results of the hard work and hours of time put into making these treasures.
A lot of people assume its just a length of bamboo and bit of brass tube cobbled together.
There is a lot of thought goes into these things too, a visualisation of how its going to look is very important before any cutting, scraping, heating and decorating is even started.
Well done all.

Wal.

The quality of the work above is simply stunning. If Old Man River (or any other TFF bamboo specialist) is 'in the market' I'd be interested in commissioning a 5 foot handle to fit a standard 32" net-head (as marketed by, say, Drennan), i.e. not a spreader-block connection. However, I do not wish, under any circumstances, to jeopardise my TFF membership terms by making such a request. I apologise in advance if such a commercial enquiry would infringe website protocols...

It never ceases to amaze me some of the works of art I see shown here, these nets are simply stunning and clearly show the skill of the makers.