Delta Net and Twine is the largest manufacturer of foodfish and fingerling seines. Delta Net also builds live cars, socks, loading nets, and any custom net you may need. Delta Net and Twine also carries a wide variety of show room inventory, such as Lacrosse boots, Muck boots, Dexter Russell knives, Live animal traps, Golights, gloves, rainwear and more. Delta Net and Twine Company has products designed and manufactured right here at the plant. Some of these items are 802 dip nets, 800 dip nets, 850 dip nets, superscoops and loading nets.
In the begining, the catfish industry was in its infancy in 1960 when the late Winston Turner, a former US Army Corps of Engineers employee in Greenville began moonlighting by making nets for commercial fishermen. A commercial fisherman himself, Turner designed nets based on his own needs.
Through the years, catfish farms spawned across the Delta and commercial fishing waned. Today, Delta Net and Twine is the largest provider of foodfish and fingerling seines.
Turner’s son, Terry owns and operates the business. He is assisted by his wife Linda; their son, Scotty Turner, and a cousin, Tom Misner.
The company recently moved into a 22,000-square-foot facility on Highway 1 South in Greenville. The new building, located two miles south of the previous plant, covers an additional 6,000 square feet. Turner added a 25-by-50-foot showroom filled with net repair supplies and commercial fishing supplies ranging from spotlights to minnow traps.
Turner learned netmaking from his father while working at the company’s original location on Clay Street. He was 9 years old when he completed his first net, which was 100 yards long. “It took me all day long to make it” he said, laughing.
Delta Net and Twine purchases bulk netting made in Japan and Mexico and produces nets to order. Mesh size ranges from barely visible to 2 inches, which is used to seine the larger catfish that processors now prefer. The company produces seines from 10 to 1,500 feet long and from 4 to 12 feet deep. To produce a finished net, employees select a netting with a mesh size appropriate for the type of net ordered. Then they “hang” the net, which involves hand stitching a length of netting to a rope using a large needle or bobbin and nylon twine. To hang a net, workers suspend the netting lengthwise along a nylon rope. Using a needle , they catch each mesh with a length of twine. Every few inches the twine is lashed to the rope with several half-hitch knots. Floats and weights are moved into position as stitching progresses. Some seines also get a “mud line” a border made of tightly rolled netting that will prevent the seine from bogging down in the pond mud.
About half of Delta Net and Twine seines are made for customers in Mississippi. The company also serves Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, North and South Carolina, Texas, and California. Turner ships to South America and overseas as well.
