Chris Yates’s Barder Rod Co Chris Yates Carp Landing Net.

Many of Chris’s best fish have been secured in the folds of its mesh. So many, in fact, that it became irresistible to the mice of Wiltshire, who swarmed out of Salisbury in their thousands, destroying crops and frightening honest downland folk as they made their way to Chris’s cottage and the succulent mesh of his carp net.

Another thing they took a fancy to, those cute but verminous little buggers, was the sofa bed I sometimes slept on in Chris’s study. While I was putting the net in a bag, I saw the sofa bed and remembered comfortable, dreamless sleep. You wouldn’t want to sleep on it now, Chris said. Mice? I asked. Yep.

Anyway, where was I? I had a new mesh made recently which I dyed dark brown. We lightly cleaned the net head. The handle required some fresh varnish and a new top ferrule because the original had had its thread stripped by a flint fragment. Colin made a new one with a nickel silver threaded insert. Keep the flints out and it’ll last forever.

The net looks as good as new. In his letters of provenance (he lost one, wrote another, found the first, you can have both) he mentions that he landed his largest ever barbel in the net and all of his large carp from 1997 onwards.

This net and its five companions were our first carp nets. We subsequently made them from American white ash. In 2015, we made a final batch of six laminated Tonkin bamboo carp nets, slightly smaller than the first six.

This is the original Chris Yates Carp Net and like Chris, it’s very rare.

Supplied with a letter of provenance written by Chris Yates on Golden Scale Club headed paper.

Specification.

Pear shaped head made from laminated flame tempered Tonkin bamboo. Circumference 91”

Mesh is 1” knotless nylon with seams front and back but none on the bottom so that the mesh bag stretches easily to encompass longer carp and pike.

The Y-shaped block is aluminium, to which the bamboo frame is attached with stainless steel screws. The ⅜” BSF studding that connects the head to its handle is also stainless steel.

The 6’ handle is made from flame tempered Tonkin bamboo. The top ferrule is aluminium with its female thread cut into a nickel silver insert for durability. It has a brass butt cap with a large red rubber button.

Both net head and handle are inscribed in Indian ink with their particulars and date of manufacture beneath the marine grade varnish finish.

The handle comes in a tailored Barder Rod Co bag.