Madrigal turns fishing tool into art A fishing net is a tool used to help land trout and other fish after they're hooked, but don't describe them that way to greg madrigal.His custom fishing nets transform a mere tool into a piece of art. Madrigal, who lives in garden grove and works from his orange countybased shop, crafts his trout fishing nets out of lovely figured pieces of wood.The handle and laminated net frame are shaped and sanded glassy smooth, and the final product glows under his homebrew oil finish that's
suite hand rubbed into the wood at least 10 coats. "I think that i'm building some of the finest nets in north america,"Said madrigal, who admits there are only a handful of woodworkers making custom nets to order for anglers.But with a single look at one of his nets, you realize he's not bragging or exaggerating.He's just making a statement of fact. Artists are frequently underpaid, and madrigal figures he makes less than $10 an hour.That's not what you'd expect a 39yearold wood artisan to be pulling down for his work.After investing 15 to 20 hours of labor into one of his custom fishing nets, the going price for now is usually around $200. It's a labor of love, and he blames flyfishing for his new career choice.A lifelong fisherman who's fished from alaska to baja, he started flyfishing only a decade ago.He'd been a woodworker his whole life too;In fact, it was his career until just recently, not long after he made that first net just three years advertisement "I made the first net for me, and then one for a fishing buddy, and then i made two more to donate to my flyfishing club,"Said madrigal, who received nothing but positive feedback along the way. "Then i got fed up with work and i quit. " A selfprofessed"Wood hoarder,"His shop is filled with highly figured pieces of walnut, fiddleback maple, olive burl, yew, teak, wenge, and on and on.He looks for natural grain flow that follows the form of the net, flowing from the handle into the hoop frame.He adds simple, elegant touches to each net an inlaid logo, a hidden magnet to attach a handmade lanyard, an inscription, or specialty items that his customers want. And flyfisherman want them.Really good artists eventually get discovered, and it's likely madrigal's nets will be pushing $500 in a short period of time, but that's still a reasonable investment for a flyfisherman who generally has an arsenal of $200 to $700 fly rods(Or a lot more if they love handmade bamboo rods)And equally priced reels, along with $200 waders and boxes full literally hundreds of $2 to $5 flies.Add in vests, lines, wading staffs, float tubes and much more, and you can see that the gear in the back of a flyfisherman's suv can be worth more than the vehicle.A $500 net is just another accoutrement of the sport. Doing an online search of makers of custom wood fishing nets, you discover two things.First, there aren't a lot of makers doing this kind of work(Probably because wood craftsmen and artists realize there are better ways to make a living), and second, there are only a handful of craftsmen whose work might classify as art.For woodworkers who build functional objects, as madrigal did for years, there's a fine line between keen craftsmanship and art, but you know it when you see it.Madrigal's nets seem to slip over that line elegantly. There's something in a beautiful, artistic landing net that makes anglers, especially fly anglers, want to use that piece of art in the field on a favorite sierra stream or beloved montana river.Why?Many people would simply hang them on the wall over a fireplace like a piece of folk art to be admired. Perhaps fly anglers use them because they feel the net is designed to be used and needs something to complete it as a work of art.For them, that something is a brightly colored living trout in the net's meshes, radiating colors that
juicy couture outlet compare and contrast with the rich wood tones, the fish's design blending with the graceful curves of the net. Fly anglers seem to understand that their sport can be elevated into a rich performance art with all of the components that are necessary to participate from handtied flies to handmade bamboo or custom graphite fly rods, from precision reels that function flawlessly to lovely landing nets, all of which combine in a scene played out in a lovely setting. The gear, however, is more than just gear when it's handmade.It binds the maker, the artist, to the angler who's using the final artwork in its proper role in the proper setting.The equipment used can help blend a long flyfishing tradition and many other participants past and present into a single moment.
