I'll take a good landing net in competent hands over landing a fish on the bank any day, if you intend to release it...no beat up from the ground, and most importantly a much shorter fighting/landing time...green fish in the net = green fish splashing you on its way back to the depths.

I'd never actually carry one on the bank, but there's always one in the boat.

I had a Ranger that satisfied every factor that Doc listed...but after it got up and walked away from us on a river bar one day, I was never able to find one with the exact same bag...but I bought another Ranger, and I prefer to any other net that I routinely use for steelhead fishing.

I do not like the drag in the water of a rubber net, and I do not like the rough coating on the Frabill Conservation Series nets, but I'd still take both of them over most others...just not a big, soft, flat bottomed net with small mesh and straight sidewalls.

Fish on...

Todd