Elver Fyke Nets

About our elver fyke nets
The Roarin' 20's Season is a comin'. Be thinking about nets!

**See Net Pricing tab for prices**

I have 15 years of elver fyke net fishing experience. The nets I sell are the same type that I fish with. They are White. I build a standard 8'x30' net with 18' foot wings and also a standard 4'x17' net with 8' wings. A bottom chain or bottom rope and top floats depends on what you want. I build to suit you and the price is in accordance with what you want. All of my nets are "true dimensional", which means that they are the actual dimensions that you order.

I sew in the top rope and tie eyes on each wing tip and in the trapezoid corners. These eyes are for poles. If there is a bottom rope, it is installed and tied in the same manner. If there are floats installed, they are on a separate rope which is attached to the top rope. I sew the chain into the net leaving a few links protruding from each wing tip to tie strings to. I use ONLY stainless steel hog rings and galvanized chain.

In my personal nets, I use a rope in the bottom and they rock down fine. This is my personal preference.

Why do I use a solid excluder panel? Well..when a muskrat gets in to the net, it isn't chewing through the panel. It'll chew out through the side of the trapezoid, sparing the tail bag. With a soft panel, it can easily chew threw it and destroy the tail bag. I'd much rather have a hole in the side of the net than a destroyed panel, funnel and bag and possibly lost eels.

Call if you have any questions, wish to purchase, or want me to repair one of your nets. As I say every year, DON'T wait until the last minute to order! There may be a few nets on hand one day and gone the next. It's happened before! I had a few on hand that were unclaimed and they were all bought in the same day. The afternoon before the season opens is not the time to be looking around for a net. You *might* get what you want, you might have to settle for something you don't want or you might not get anything at all.

I try to have some on hand through the fishing season, but there's no guarantees.

50% down will reserve you a net and put you in pecking order and it's first come with $, first serve. I usually begin taking orders and building in January and will take payments, money orders, cash & checks. PLAN AHEAD!! There's 4 ways you can pay right there, I've tried to make it as convenient as possible.

NOTE: Deposits on nets are non-refundable. A deposit holds a net for you. The deposit money is already invested in the materials to build it and another customer, with cash in hand will be unable to purchase it. This is why the deposit is non-refundable....just incase you back out. I will hold the net for 30 days from the time I get the first deposit.

The word has been getting around about these nets and there have been a lot of happy people. Some people have bought multiple nets each. I've learned that my name is being mentioned internationally as somebody who builds good nets. A new customer drove better than 6 hours one way to come see these nets and purchased some due to what he's heard and seen. He did his homework and told me these were the best ones he could find. He liked them even more in person. In 2019 there was a mesh supply crisis. Even trying to plan months in advance to be ready, suppliers were caught off guard. Unfortunately we can't predict when a factory is going to drag it's feet shipping orders. I do my best to plan ahead and stay ahead. I've been contacted from another country in addition to Canada, so if things get busy, you don't want to be left hanging.

From a customer- "You have an amazing product. I think we might want to supply your product in Canada."

Customers from years past are returning to get more nets. One man said all he has done to his net in 5 years is patch the small holes and it's still fishing.

Net sales are sporadic from year to year, the targeted customer base is small and the material is expensive. I can't front thousands of dollars to have a lot of supplies and nets on hand sitting around to maybe not sell. When I buy a roll of mesh, it's about enough to make 4 8x30's and I can usually get a couple 4x17's out of it. This is never a guarantee as the roll can have seams and runs in it from the factory that have to be cut out...wasting material length. It costs over $1000 to get a roll of mesh and a day of my time to go get it.

RACISM: I'll get that straight right now. I don't care if you're white, native, black...whatever. I have friends and family of various races. You treat me with respect, I treat you with respect and we are all happy.
Let's not play games:
1. Please don't call me and say you have XX amount of money and want a certain type of net for under the list price. I spend a lot of time assembling these nets and the materials to build them are expensive. These are not thrown together carelessly to get them out the door. (You don't go to a restaurant and order a nice $30 steak dinner from the menu, but tell them that you want it for $10 do you?)
2. Please don't try to get me to sell you a net for less with the promise of "I'll tell everybody to buy from you."
3. You're expensive! Make me a deal. No I am NOT expensive. I've done my homework. I have seen incomplete nets for sale for hundreds more than my complete ones that are ready to hit the water. I refer you to the bottom of this page to "a deal" someone got. I also refer you to the link to the "Net Pricing". At the bottom of the price list is a notation about being legal.
4. Will you teach me how to build nets? (I have been asked this) Umm..no. I figured out how to do it on my own and learned my own tricks along the way. Why would I show someone else so that they can start trying to compete with me?
5. Prices here are reasonable. There is quality in the work. If you take care of your net it will last for years and earn you thousands and thousands of dollars. Depending on your quota size and prices it could earn you six figures....so don't try to beat me down.

DELIVERY- Yes, I will deliver nets if I'm going to be in an area.
ph: 207.598.6862

Legalities-
These Fykes are built in accordance with Maine law. They are within legal size (no more than 30' from wing tip to cod end) and the excluder panels are within limitation set forth in Title 12. The excluder must be 1/2" mesh or smaller. I use 1/4" which works absolutely fine. The reason I mention this is because awhile ago, a person was on facebook posting information which made it look like I had put an illegal excluder panel in the net that he had purchased from me. He publicly posted some dimensions which indicated that my 1/4" panel was illegal. His claim was the panel had to be between 3/8" and 1/2". I copied and pasted the law to him regarding the dimensions and asked where he obtained his incorrect information. He never responded. Rest assured, if you buy a net here, it is legal. I build them according to what is written in Title 12, not what so & so says or thinks the law is.

With that being said, if you desire a larger panel than 1/4", I will install it, not a problem. My stock nets come with 1/4".

8'x30'x18' -In the 8'x30' nets, there is approximately 600 yards of thread. Yeah…that’s 6 football field lengths. I use nylon upholstery thread so that it is strong and won’t rot out. The 18’ wings and 8’ trapezoid span allow these nets to be opened wide. It is 43’ from the end of a wing across the wing, across the trapezoid and to the tip of the other wing. Every seam that has stress is sewn with a zig-zag pattern in order to put as much thread in to the material as possible. I can also repair or rebuild your net if it is worth it.
4'x17'x8'- In the 4'x17' nets, there is approximately 200-250 yards of thread. The 8’ wings and 4’ trapezoid span create a 20’ length wing tip to wing tip. These little nets are great for those smaller fishing holes where trying to fit a 8'x30' is a pain. Trying to stuff an 8'x30' in to a waterway that’s narrow can be a nuisance. These 4' footers are perfect for areas like that.

" I can also repair your nets."

Battle Story-

How tough are these nets? Everybody likes to brag about their products I'm sure, but I won't. I'll just lay it out how it is. If you take care of your net, it will last for many many years. People who buy nets from me will sometimes ask for advice, which I give and I'll also give it freely to save them from destroying a net. One piece of advice is- "Know your waterway". Know what is going to happen with 1" of rain, 2" of rain etc. You need to know when you need to pull your net out.

Are these nets indestructible? Absolutely not! Will they take a beating? Yes. Do I recommend abusing them? Nope. Do I recommend doing what you're about to read below? Nope AND Nope!

In mid-April of 2018 we had a wild night of 45+MPH wind and 2" of rain. It came in with a vengeance. My net was still in the water and I thought for sure it was wrecked. I should have played it safe and pulled it. The waterway became a raging river & overflowing. I went to check on things as the tide went down and the net was still there, standing, intact and I actually caught something. I couldn't believe it. Come daylight, I inspected it and it had sustained no damage.

That same night, a customer who had just splashed his brand new net was caught off guard also. He thought that he had lost it. However, when the water receded all he did was stand it back up again and reset it. He listened to some advice and although being caught off guard, ultimately it paid off for him. The net sustained no damage and he told me that everybody else was sewing theirs back together. He was the ONLY one who didn't have a casualty. He told me that other fishermen there had looked at his net when he set it up at the beginning of the season and criticized it because they didn't think it was that good of a net. The people who were criticizing his net before the storm had to repair theirs after it. He said then they wanted to know where he got it. It survived unscathed and he had no problem filling his quota.

Here is one of his exact text messages from after that storm: "Yeah I was really impressed. Everyone else was sewing all season, I didn't have to once, LOL. Had people saying they didn't like the material until they saw how good it was, now they want it."

Check out this short video below of a rip test.

Beware of others

Most of us work hard for our money. Some other net builders don't take the time to put any quality work in to their products and may not even finish them before selling them. In 2019 I saw an 8x30 net for sale that wasn't even close to finished and someone wanted $1500 as is. Some builders blatantly rip people off. In 2019 a net was sold to a person as an "8x30". The excluder panel was rat wire wrapped around plastic pipe and secured with zip ties. This had many sharp edges. Anybody with any experience knows what sharp edges will do to a fyke net. The panel was not installed in the net and just thrown into a tote with the net. The person paid $1000 for the net because it was "a deal". This net was brought to me to be finished the day prior to opening day because it was not legal to fish when it was sold. I hung it up and immediately saw that it was not an 8x30 net. We measured it and it was 7'4" tall and only 22' long from wing tip to the end of the cod end. 22' is a far cry from 30'. The measurement across the wing tips was 25'. You can see how short the wings are and the low quality of the workmanship of this net. It is just thrown together, get it out the door and get the $$.

Another customer paid $1200 for a 8x30 net a awhile ago. He took it home and opened it up. It wasn't even a net. It was a long piece of material with a hole cut in the middle and a tail bag stuck on it. Yuh…… he was not refunded his money and had a piece of junk. He came here and scoped out a net before buying it, he was very happy with the one he bought here.

It is YOUR money, spend it as you wish.

There is no excuse for something like this. If you tell a customer they are getting an 8x30 net, you deliver them an 8x30 net, period.