Middy Supra Dry Landing Nets

As many of you might realise, I’m incredibly fussy when it comes to certain items of tackle, and one of them is landing net heads. These are the sort of items that some anglers don’t care about in the slightest, but I see them as being a very important part of my fishing. Trying to find a tactical edge over other anglers during a match is incredibly hard, so I see small things like having a top quality net that allows you to land fish slightly quicker as an easy small gain. Find enough of these small gains and you will win!

So many times, you see the opportunity to scoop a fish a little early and you ram the net at it as hard as you can, just for it to wriggle over the top and keep on swimming and you lose another 30 seconds waiting for it to come back up again. All these missed opportunities soon add up over the space of a match when a good weight is needed to win! Not only that, but a missed scoop could knock the fish off the hook or break a fine hooklength.

For me, a net needs to be very light. Even a few extra grams feels very heavy at the end of a 3 or 4m pole! Not only that, the mesh must not retain water, as again, that is also adding weight.

Secondly, it needs to have a mesh that moves very freely through the water. The faster I can push it, the more likely I am to get it under a fish in time. The perfect depth is also hard to get right. Too shallow means you need a bigger frame to fit the fish in, which adds weight and drag in the water, while too deep means fish get lost inside and have space to thrash around and break the line or smash the float when fishing shallow.

Lastly, it needs to be hook friendly. While a hook falling out on your net when fishing a commercial is a pain, on a natural water when fishing with barbed hooks, it’s horrific!
I did have a favourite net; it is years old however, and has been discontinued. When the thread broke on it, I even bought a new frame and put the old mesh on to it as I simply could not find a net on the market that I liked! At some point, the mesh will go on it and I would have been stuck!

Finally however, a set of nets arrived in the Match Fishing office that really turned my head! The Middy Supra Dry nets are light… very light! The depth is perfect and the mesh big enough to cause minimal drag in the water. Even the label is very small, which is something a lot of manufacturers don’t think about. So many nets have a lovely free-flowing mesh then a dirty great drag-causing label whacked on it!

With so many boxes ticked I couldn’t wait to try them out. The first time I used one, I nearly wet myself with delight (I know it’s sad, please don’t judge me, I just appreciate quality) as its speed through the water was fantastic. The second you lift it out the water it’s almost instantly dry, meaning it retains virtually no weight. The mesh isn’t rubber, but has some sort of coating that repels water like rubber nets do, but without the weight.

Three sessions down the line, I’m still waiting for the catch (an accidental pun). Middy has designed the Supra Dry to prevent hook-ups and, so far, I’ve not had a single one. It has already replaced my favourite net and I’ve used it successfully with hair rigs. The final test though, will be in a few months’ time, fishing banded casters for F1s. If thrashing F1s cannot rip the band off my hair rig in the net, then not only will these nets replace my favourite net, but they will replace ALL my nets!

Size-wise, they are available in 18in, 20in and 22in versions, which should be taken as a name only as they certainly don’t match these sizes! As a guide, the 18in is perfect for silvers and F1s, but will also fit a good-sized carp, so will be the natural-water angler’s choice. The 20in will probably be the most popular, as it’s a good all-round big-fish net – if you only buy one of them, make it this one. The 22in is ideal when really big carp, tench or bream can be expected, yet I used it all day at Barston yesterday fishing for skimmers just to test it out and it still feels very good!

Verdict: The net head I’ve been waiting for!

Website: www.middytackle.com

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