When I splashed about with the little fish net I had bought (the biggest I could find at the pet store) the fish just took on a Crocodile Dundee attitude.

“Net?  That’s not a net!?”

Anyway, I couldn’t fold them enough to get them into the pitiful excuse for a net I had bought at the pet store (their biggest model) and I guess that fish aren’t really built for origami  practice.

So I dug up a real fish net (the kind you take when you go fishing) and now I was Crocodile Dundeeish.

“Now THIS – this is what I call  a net!!!” I shouted as I pulled out the bigger fish.

And that left me the smaller ones, which would fit into the pet store net, but were way out of reach.  I tried duct taping the small net to the handle of a rake.  All that got me was a sharp thunk in the back of my head with the business end of the rake when I lunged to snag the fish.  Not good.  And kinda stupid.

I tried the big fish net for the smaller ones, but they just fell through, and mocked my feeble attempts at capturing them.  One held up a sign with a score of  “3″ on it.

Improvise, I thought.

I borrowed some fabric from a neighbour, and tied it to and inside the real fish net with twist ties.  And that worked – kinda, sorta – but the fish mostly just giggled at my new pink net as they effortlessly avoided it.  I ignored my first instinct to try the duct tape and rake innovation again when my still aching head throbbed,  “No, no, you idiot!  What makes you think that will work this time?”

With only a couple of the fish left, I was saved by my neighbour (who laughed at the pink net, even though I had got the material from his wife).  He had just been to the dollar store, and found a huge butterfly net, with a long bamboo handle.

It worked perfectly.