Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss What not to do with a cast net

Find barbed wire.

At least you 'caught' it!

So you weren't targeting the barbed wire? Weird.

A needle nose wire fish LOL

Were you able to salvage the net?

When I could tell that whatever the net was caught on wasn't going to move, I handed my wife the end of the rope and everything that was in my pockets and headed into the water. When I found that it was barbed wire she rummaged around the pickup and found the only thing cable of cutting wire, some really cheap pliers. I then spent about ten minutes cutting enough wire to get the net out of the water. I cut the rest of the wire out of the net this morning and it doesn't seem like it was damaged too much.
I'm going to fabricate some sort of large treble hook on a rope and see if I can yank the remaining wire out of the mud.

Been there, done that -- just under slightly different circumstances.

As for a treble hook, see my post about less-than-$5 grappling hooks. Hook for retrieving lost pond items

First, I learned never to use a cast net to capture a huge school of 3-6 inch bullheads. They move slow, especially if you've put out a whole bunch of bread crumbs for them to snack on. So, a cast net can get an awful lot of them if you can accurately throw the net while they are munching. They don't come out of a mono-filament castnet without out using wire cutters to cut lots of barbs!

As for fence wire -- a number of years ago we bought a place that was really overgrown, with old falling-down buildings, and piles of trash. There was a wild rose and wild blackberry patch behind one of the decrepit corrugated metal buildings. I'm guessing it was a chicken coop at one time, with a chicken yard out the back. Behind the building was this massive tangle of brambles.

I couldn't drive the tractor in forward because the thorns were just tearing up my tractor, my pants, and my arms. So, I would back the raised brushhog into the patch, and then slowly drop it. As I was doing this, I got into a rather thick area next to the back of the building. As I dropped the brushhog, the tractor just stopped dead -- which it had never ever done before. I disabled the PTO, re-started the tractor, lifted the mower, and pulled forward. I had backed over an incredible mess of chicken fencing and barbed wire. It had to have taken at least a couple of hours with wire cutters and a small set of bolt cutters to get the mower freed!

Good luck in your quest for sunken treasures.

That gnarled up mess makes my head hurt just from looking at it.

Thing we've wrapped in a brushhog or shredder as we call them around here, could likely be a very long thread.

Ain't that the truth. This could be a hijack!

The worst thing I ever hit was when I was bushogging the yard of the drug dealers who inherited the property across the road from us. The grass had had gotten to about 4-foot high, covering most of their stolen cars and motorcycles. I just couldn't deal with the crap anymore. The sheriff or deputies were there at least once a week. The sheriff said "just do it" when I mentioned bushogging the yard, because they kind of wanted to know what was in the yard too, like acetone cans, etc.

I hit a mattock with it's handle still intact. It sure put a lot of dents in the mower/shredder body -- and the mattock came out the back of the bushog with just nicks in the handle and a few unrusted nicks in the head. My blade sure had lots of really big nicks.

Oyster beds are also very useful if you dislike your current cast net and
Want to empty your wallet on a new one

Umm is it just me?? Why the heck is there barb wore in your pond..??

Looks like fun BH! Yep, barbed wire and cast net's don't mix. Worst thing I ever had was a bunch of small branches. Still a PITA!

No idea, I just bought the place a year ago, but I have three theories.

1. A cow got it caught on her leg and it happened to come off when she went for a swim.
2. The top side of this pond is real close to the boundary fence. Perhaps a really hard rain washed it in.
3. Some jerk threw it in when he didn't know what else to do with it.

I am voting for #3

I would bet a number 4-5 also as surprises

When I was a boy fishing the creeks and farm ponds, old rolls of woven wire fencing was an ever present hazard. I fished a favored section of creek that had an old wood-fired kitchen stove in it. And one time successfully fought and landed what turned out to be part of an ancient Allis Chalmers one-row cornpicker.

Part of the hazards of fishin' in farm country.

Speaking of brush hogs, the 7' one on the deere started vibrating lately. I looked under it and one blade is worn down to about 50% of the width of the other blade. Any ideas why? Both blades came on the brushhog (Deere) and it's seen about 20hr of use. Deere wants $40/blade, but they're going to come out on Thurs and take a look at it, and possibly warranty the blades.

Sounds like one blade missed its heat treatment? One of the worst things on blades is sand..... it will wear the airlifts right off a mower blade. But just one? I'll bet they warranty it.

What's a mattock Ken?

A mattock is usually called a mad axe in our area. You need to be mad to use one.

I had to google that one also.

We call a "mattlock" a pick axe.

That's exactly what I think, and they're coming out to take a pic and see what the higher up's say on Thurs. If I mow once a week I'll usually need to at least resharpen the mower blades once a year (swap out a set of 3 blades on the 345s 54" deck), and if I don't then the blades are trashed becaues of the sand.

Yes, you guys got it right. This is a mattock:



I'm still in pretty good physical shape, but I find it a lot easier to use my back hoe nowadays! I have several, and as far as I can tell, they are all made from cast iron. They are heavy.

I also had to google it yesterday. They are known as a pick axe around here.