Grandpappy's Official Website, a blast from the past

 

Back-in-the-day, I got a lot of information and enjoyment from Grandpappy.

I stumbled across it again this morning when I was wondering how much investment Peter and Andrew abandoned when they left their cast-nets to follow Jesus. How many man-hours and how much material had been sunk into each net? It was undoubtedly a non-trivial amount* in those days before automatic looms and net-making machines.

The first leg of my "research" indicated that many fish caught in a cast-net are entangled in the mesh similar to how a gill-net works. The mesh size is directly related to the cost of the net since a smaller mesh means more line, more finely woven line and many more knots.

Figuring that medium-sized suckers would be about the largest fish that might be loafing near the shore, I went on-line to see what size gill-net one might use to catch suckers....and BOOM! There was Grandpappy's page.

For the record, 1-1/2" mesh is a good starting point if you were going to make a cast-net to catch suckers. In my mind's eye, I could see that a net with a 12' diameter and 1-1/2' mesh size would be possible in a pre-industrial world. Possible but not cheap.

It is great to see that Grandpappy is still producing content even if he is not churning it out like he did ten years ago. His material aged well and is still applicable.

If you are interested in throwing a few dollars in his direction, he sells books on Amazon including a cookbook on Campfire Survival Cooking.

* A cast net with a 12' diameter and mesh 1-1/2" on a side requires about 7200 knots.