eyeFISH,

It's simply based on my own observations standing at the stern rail looking into the water as our net came over the roller and observing lots of dead Kings rolling out of the hammock, over the leadline, and being lost to the depths. I'm not anti-drift net by any stretch, but I'm also not going to deny what I've witnessed. With due respect to Dave, and again I'm not out to demonize Sockeye mesh, but I don't believe Kings simply "bounce off of it" nearly as scott free as folks would like to believe. Guys say that's not possible, because you can tell when there's kings in the net by watching your corks, or your net will get all torn up, but that wasn't my experience. If I hadn't spent so much time watching that net come up, we never would have had any idea we were catching and losing so many Kings as we did. Of course we'd pray, and reach, and hold our mouths just righ in he hopes that next one would catch a fin or gill plate just long enough to come up within reach, but we lost at least half a dozen for every one we got in the boat. And that was only the ones we saw. From what I've seen, it looks like they get their jaws tangled and then spin so they effectively hog tie their jaws shut so they suffocate. But they're not rolling up in the net, and getting hung or doing much damage. Then when they relax cause they're dead, and you put a little tension on the net while towing, or holding position against current, or when retrieving, they unwind and fall out. They might pop a strand or two, but we rarely had any significant damage.