We fish Lavon. We started this summer. Had a blast all summer. Always easily found shad at the boat ramps. Learned basically everything from this forum....


Went last week. Couldn't catch bait. Caught 3 shad in an hour throwing all over the ramps. Drove around a bit throwing the net at stuff I saw on the finder. Nothing.

I use a cheap academy net, works fine when lots of shad. I think they're deeper now, so I need better net. Suggestions?

Secondly, where to look for them bad boys on Lavon this time of year.

Thanks for tips!

Gotta have a heavy net. When watching my 6 foot radius cheap net fall on my live scope. At around the 10-12 foot depth my net diameter goes from 8-12' depending on a good throw or not all the way down to 2 foot. And it makes it hard to catch bait when your net is practically closed. So to fix this I am currently looking for a quality heavy 7 foot net that doesnt cost $150...

El Gato Azul, has written a bunch about deep nets. Others have written about taping their own nets, to good effect, as well. The size of the openings also affects the drop speed. Smaller openings slows down the drop (water resistance is higher).
About the only thing, imho, against home-taped nets is the lack of weight to them. However, lots of folks are very happy with theirs.
As is so often the case, how fast do you want to spend? A home-taped net will get you started. A well built, and heavy, taped net isn't going to be cheap. The performance does have its rewards...

Taped heavy net, only way to catch them deep. Standard 1 lb per foot nets fall too slow. Also, wouldn't hurt to have larger mesh, like 5/8 or bigger. Lets the little fellers slip through, and not hang their gills in the net, and increases fall rate too. I need to get one too, but 175 - 200 bucks for a good one.

It would be hard for me to even gait bait without my deep net. I had to get it in 45 ft up here at Texoma this morning.

Suggestions for a good net? Santa claus is coming and I need to get my wife something...

I like the Fitec 11970 the best but they are having a supply problem so they are impossible to get right now. I also have a Betts that’s pretty good and you can still find them on Amazon. Don’t get the Betts that only has 1 lb of lead per ft. Make sure it’s the one with 1.4 lbs per ft.

https://www.amazon.com/Betts-19-7-DH-Super-Deep-Hole/dp/B00AN0S1P8

Thank you. On order.

I'll be back soon with more questions.