Date: Wed, 07 Dec 2005 14:13:50 -0500
From: br0630 at aol.com
Subject: daphnia scoop

Hi, You know how I only feed live foods to my fish.  Well, I got a new
"daphnia scoop" from B.G. Granier last Saturday and can't believe how
well it works.  I arrived home from taking my sons to catch the bus for
skiing last Saturday morning to find a package from B.G.  I unwrapped it
and found an oblong netted hoop - it was an oblong, maybe 12" high by 18"
wide hoop, with "no see-um" netting, a short bridal and about 15' or 20'
of yellow poly small diameter line.  I added another 40' or so of line
so I could toss it further and headed for a nearby pond.

It was windy, but sunny and I wasn't sure if the pond would be iced
over.  As luck would have it, the pond was open with some whitecaps.
Standing high and dry on the bank, I proceeded to toss it out as far as
my line would allow, probably about 60'.  I could have easily thrown it
further if I'd had more retrieval line and what amazed me was how the wind
didn't seem to have much affect on my tosses.  I threw it parallel with
shore in both directions from my shore position, and out at different
angles with equal ease.  Oh, I almost forgot to mention that the scoop
has a small flotation foam at the top that keeps the hoop oriented 90
degrees to the water surface/pond bottom.  This is a key element in the
effectiveness in my opinion.

Anyway, I tossed the daphnia scoop out and immediately retrieved it,
thus keeping the top of the hoop in contact with the surface throughout
the retrieve.  Evidently there were no daphnia in the upper water table,
probably because of the chop from the wind.  Next I let the scoop
settle some before I began my retrieve.  Bingo, I brought in about
half a cup of daphnia and small cyclops along with a few backswimmers.
After collecting a couple of cups of daphnia, I decided to see how well
the daphnia scoop might work dragging it along the bottom.  I waited
for the scoop to drop to the bottom and then began a slower retrieval to
keep it on bottom.  The metal in the hoop is heavy enough to get it to
the bottom and the flotation keeps it oriented in an upright position,
so it's always in a "collecting" position in the water. Bumping along the
bottom resulted in getting snails, mayfly nymphs and more backswimmers
as well as a few daphnia.  Another feature that I like is that the
scoop was easy to empty into my bucket inspite of the wind; B.G. made
an excellent design as the size seems to me to be just about perfect.
I can also retrieve it faster than any bugs could out swim. Bottom
line, this daphnia scoop is about as handy for getting most all water
"bugs" at any depths as anything I could think of.  And to top it off,
I can stop by this pond to do some live food collecting on my way home
from work.  I don't have to worry about getting wet or muddy and in 5
or 10 minutes I can collect as much live food as I need.  In addition,
this is well-built and it appears to me that it will take a lot of use
and abuse and remain in good, functional shape.  I just shake the scoop
a couple of times and put it in a shallow plastic box and am ready for
the next time I want to use it.

If you or anyone you know might be interested, I heartily endorse B.G.'s
new daphnia scoop. Oh, you'll like this; B.G. couldn't have sent it at
a better time, either.  I went out the next day, Sunday, to see if I
could get some glass worms from a different pond and I'll be darned;
all of the ponds were frozen over.  I was pretty lucky to get it Saturday!

Bruce "Gator" Scott

From: "Joshua L. Wiegert" <JLW at dune.net>
To: <nativefishconservancy@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2005 9:27 PM
Subject: [NFC]: The Shiner Scoop

(This review was intended to go into the Flier, but for space reasons,
never made it.  I'm sending it out to the list - you'll all get a good
look at it, this way. :).



The Shiner Scoop



At the beginning of the summer, B. G. was kind enough to send me a
Shiner Scoop.  Our Adirondack streams are often quite shallow, and I
was quite busy. I have to admit, I never got the chance to use it until
this autumn! It made an interesting bit of decoration in my apartment
until I actually used it.

For those who don't know, the Shiner Scoop is a round hoop-net that is
tossed out into the water.  A pull string is used to haul the net in.  
It is green mesh netting, about 1/4".  The design reminds me vaguely of
the giant trawl-nets that are dragged behind boats to catch sardines or
tuna.

B. G. claims he designed the net after encountering fast minnows that
poked their heads out of the water and laughed at him when he went
after them with a dip net.  So, he came up with this remote-dip-net,
which you could use from the shore, without getting your feet wet.

I have to admit, I took one look at this thing and thought, "Never
gonna work."  I use a similar looking device professionally to collect
plankton. Although large enough to catch fish, I've never caught one,
and no one I've ever talked to has, though we often wonder that none
get in there. Popular theory is that they "sense" the wake of the net
and run.  My first few tries with a Shiner Scoop were downstate, in a
fast moving stream.  There were few fish there and I caught none.  I
was discouraged.  Of course, I didn't catch many using traditional
tools, either.

I figured I'd give it another shot, though.  I took it out to one of
the larger lakes here, and tossed it out past a weed bed.  I let it sit
there for 30-seconds or so.  I gave it a good pull and dragged it in.  
I collected a nice bunch of plants that had stuck to it.  Aha!  I
thought to myself, a use for this thing, even if it can't catch fish.

Then I had to eat my words.

It's not often I do.

Okay, ask any woman I've ever met. that's not true.

It's pretty often.

This was no exception.  In the net, there must have been a dozen small
perch.  Now, I have no interest in yellow perch, so this wasn't a
particularly interesting haul for that purpose, but I will tell you
that these guys can be one of the more difficult small fish to collect.  
While they go into traps easily, collecting them by dip net is a joke -
they actually leap out of the water and avoid dip nets, seines, and
other nets. While doing fish surveys by seine here, we often call them
"Adirondack Flying Fish" because of this net-avoiding habit.  But I got
some.

I gave it another shot, waiting a little longer this time.

Pulling it in, I had a small group of Sticklebacks and some more yellow
perch.  I also had a baby sunfish of some sort.

Nearly every try I had with this thing, I caught a bunch of fish.  I
even caught a small bullhead in it.

There are a few tricks with it, which definitely help.  If you toss it
in and immediately pull it back in, you'll never catch a fish.  They
hear it splash and run.  However, once the splash is over, the fish
will come back. If you pull the net in too slowly, fish will get out of
it.  I don't know that many do, but I think they could.

Overall, I really like this net.  I have only a few complaints about it

It's very easy to catch the net on a stick, log, rock, etc.  If this
happens, you're tempted to just yank it, in which case you can break a
tie or tear the net.  I'm not sure how this could be improved.  
However, if you do snag, just walk out and get the net.  We're fish
people - we don't mind getting in the water.  There is a "Swamp" model
available, with a triangular shape that limits the number of snags.  
The rope mine came with was too short, and I needed to purchase
additional rope and attach it to the hand line.  The website for the
Shiner Scoop states that the rope is 12' long - I would guess that
someone else pointed this out to B. G., and he has begun to send out
nets with longer ropes since I got mine.

The Shiner Scoop is available from www.shinerscoop.net, as well as some
other great collecting gear I'd love to try (I'm itching to try the
Improved Darter Gator!).  You can choose between a 22 and 30" model
with or 3/16" mesh - and you can even pick the colour!  Other sizes of
net and mesh are available for custom order.  A smaller model, called
the "Daphnia Net" exists for collecting zooplankton.

If you've been looking for a new collecting toy, and are interested in
fast moving, hard to collect fish like minnows, give the Shiner Scoop a
shot. Be patient, and give it a little practice - you won't be
disappointed. 

-- end
  ____^___
<,DARWIN,>
Joshua L. Wiegert
Native Fish Conservancy Lists Administrator
JLW@dune.net
AIM UID: JoshuaWiegert                                                
ICQ
UIN: 276060292
                             HTTP://WWW.NATIVEFISH.ORG

From: "Irate Mormon" <archimedes at bayspringstel.net>
To: <Nativefishconservancy@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2005 9:57 PM
Subject: Re: [NFC]: The Shiner Scoop

If you frequently collect solo, as I do, you may wish you had a seining
partner to get those fish that stay just out of dipnet-range (even if
you have a 12' telecoping handle like I do).  Or the water may be just
too deep, or you may be a dry-foot man like BG :-)  OR you may carry
one in the back of your truck like I do, and if you're in your
Sunday-Go-To-Meetin' clothes whilst crossing a nice stream, you can nab
a few fishes without necessitating a trip to the dry-cleaners.  It's a
great net - everybody needs one!  Well worth the price, and cheaper
than a good seine.  Cheaper than my 6'-12' dipnet, for that matter.

The Shiner Scoop


--Irate