George Boehm, the inventor of Tournament Series Precision Landing Nets TM and fly-fishing nets, enjoys sharing the story behind their development. A one-time toolmaker, he’s fished all around the world alongside some of the truly great anglers.
"Growing up in southern Wisconsin on the shore of Lake Michigan during the Great Depression, fishing was a natural activity because it was free and we could catch a lot of fish. But I didn’t own a landing net until 1942, when I started trout fishing. It had a rubber handle and a 10-inch diameter frame of thin spring steel. For the trout streams of Wisconsin and Michigan, where you rarely catch a fish longer than 10 inches, the net worked fine.
But in 1964, I was invited to spend ten days fishing the Madison River in Montana, and I caught almost 100 trout more than 12 inches long. I thought I chased one very big trout for more than an hour, but my friends say it was only 10 minutes. When I finally put the net under him only the tail-half fit in the bag, and when I tried to lift it out of the water the frame collapsed. The fish flopped out, the leader broke, and my trophy drifted out of sight. I finally recovered from the disappointment, but it launched me on a crusade to make a good folding landing net.
In 1975, I moved to Montana and for more than 20 years I lived on 65 acres of bottom land with a half-mile of frontage on the Madison River. I fished and made landing nets, and after 100 drawings and many handmade models I was granted two patents- one with a folding handle and another with a telescoping handle. Between them, they cover an extensive line of folding landing nets for all types of fishing, from panfish to muskies and salmon. They’re called the Tournament Series Precision Landing Nets TM".
