Share Your Innovations

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by driftwood

The new promar eclipse was approved by the DFG becase its spec's were similar to the old traditional hoop. Have you cheked with the DFG about modifcation/configuations/mechanisms of your new hoop net? Might be worth checking just to be sure. http://www.promarnets.com/Media/Arti...-10/P1-P14.pdf

Actually I appreciate your concern but it's unnecessary.

It's not a big deal but I think you have some basic misconceptions. First off the original hoopnets were all flat two ring nets made for the sail powered commercial crab fishery in San Francisco bay. They predate the use of traps back to the 1800s.

The Danielson cone nets are a more modern net designed for dungeness crab, but built for the rec crab fishery with a rigged structure more like a trap, then a traditional hoop.

When Guys started using them for lobster down here there was a big shakeup. Some in the DFG said they were illegal for lobster, some guys got tickets for using them, and the official word was that they essentually were traps. The deal was the regs did not have a clear definition of what a hoopnet was so legally there was a loophole and for a while it was pretty much anything goes.

The DFG siad they were going to remake the regs, and part of it would state that all hoopnets had to be flat nets. That they had to lie flat on the bottom, and be under 36 inches in diameter. Since it was obvious that cone nets did not lie flat they were going to be illegal for lobster, but still legal for crab. That said cones had some advantages, so some of us started playing with alternative flat nets, that had cone properties.

Here's one of mine from back then.


That extra expandable ring caused the net lay flat with the bait cage centered, but also when pulled changed the net to a cone shape. The idea being if nets just had to lie flat that net would be legal but it also functioned like a cone net. I used those nets for one season and they worked great, but had a lot of drag in the water. Though legal back when I made them, it's my understanding that they would now be illegal because it has too many rings according to the new regs.

Promar in anticipation of the Flat net reg held back on making conical nets and instead introduced the larger 36 inch flat nets to get a jump on Danielson, who was only making 32's. For a while 36 flat nets were the hot item, in anticipation of the reg change, but they are dogs to pull, and some of us switched to motorized pullers. (I made my own) Bottom line we were all trying to figure out how to legally maximize our catches, and wanted to know what the new regs would be so we could build nets to fit them in anticipation of their arrival.

The rub for Promar though was the DFG did not change the regs, but stalled out on it, and started talking about doing a study. That put Promar in a bind. Danielson was making a cone net, legally selling it, it was getting popular, the DFG quit writing citations, so Promar needed to compete, or they were going to loose some of their business.

Now I don't know what Promar officially says but after waiting for a few years for the DFG to act on the flat net regs Promar in my opinion just had enough and they made a even bigger cone net the eclipse net to essentually challenge the law.

Like Promar I had held back on making a cone net for years because I'd heard they were going to be illegal but when I heard about the Promar eclipse going into production I was like screw this I'm going to make my own cones as well.

At the time I just started kayak hooping, so I started playing around with a low drag kayak friendly cone hoop design. I had a friend in the DFG who warned me against doing it, because he said they still were considering a reg change, but I figured WTF I could use them for a season or two, and since the DFG would either have to outlaw cones altogether, or that they would have to permit both production cone nets to keep being made, that if I built my nets with net specs that lay right smack between the two production cones, I could maximize the chance that my nets would still be legal when and if the DFG finally did actually change the regs.

Of course if I was wrong I'd of just changed the nets, or scrapped them, I mean I have maybe six net designs around here, some in full sets, but the day the DFG came up with the new regs I got a call from someone closely involved in the process and they assured me that my nets were still going to be legal. So it worked, and you could say I have checked, or do have confirmation that my nets are legal.

Bottom line you can build your own nets as long as they fit the specifications spelled out by the DFG, and my nets fit those specs even though they are easier to pull from a kayak then the current D and PM designs.

Jim