Then there was the gear net retractor, humm, well built and solid, it was a combination of budgie cord and reel retractor. Looked like a famous idea at the time. I was confident that I would grab it and like a miracle the net would leap in my hand to put under that big brown and upon release the net would carefully reel back behind me. Brilliant, I installed it on net and vest collar ring. The net zipped nicely behind me. Fantastic... I was proud of my buy and felt clever with myself that this would be with me for life. I patted myself on the back for my great choice.
Below me, I could see the stream, sparkling in the early morning sun. Just a few hundred yards to go through some brush and I would be throwing big dry flies to hungry browns. I wound my way through the trees toward an opening in the woods. For an instant I somehow sensed that something was amiss then I staggered, blinded and saw stars, had to hold on to a tree and sit down, dizzy as hell. That diabolical device had carefully caught my net on a bush and reeled out bungie cord calculating exact distance and elastic pressure + speed, the result was a wooden net traveling at warp speed like the starship enterprise toward the back of my head. My trusted net had turned against me like a device out of the Acme Products that Wile E. Coyote depends on.
I was so disgusted I took the device off and hung it from a tree branch to haunt some other unfortunate. Spent the rest of the day favouring a lump the size of a goose egg. Lesson learned the hard way.