Recently I put a Pro-Mar soft mesh net bag on my Frabil/Cabelas big net. Pro-Mar soft mesh net bags seem pretty easy on the fish and their fins, but Pro-Mar net bags are for sh!t for everything else. Hooks get caught in them for days, and they are so deep that you feel like you are digging for a geoduck when you are reaching into the bottom of it.

Under most circumstances I just drag fish I am going to release along side the boat and use a de-hooker or pliers to let them go. For special fish I will sometimes go to shore and corral them for a picture.

Yesterday I was plunking with my buddy and he hooked an absolute screamer. It was a beautiful fish, high teens, sea-lice mean-ass buck. He was struggling with it using a salmon sized rod and reel with heavy line. We are in a location where the nearest beach is well out of sight, so the only way to get the fish is going to be from the boat. I tried a couple times to leader it and got the leader twice, but we realized quickly it would take another 10 minutes of pulling on him to get him tired out enough to make that work. I like to get them in green and released as quickly as possible. Out comes the Pro Mar net.

Buddy hasn't been steelhead fishing in 3 or 4 years, and his second fish of the day is one of his biggest ever so we would really like to get a grip n grin. We are in slow-moderate current on anchor. I could have released the anchor but there was a lot of problems with that idea as well. Finally he gets the fish on the surface and I scoop from the boat side out, his head dips and hook point snags just inside the lip of the net and I get about half of his body over the rim, and try to scoop around him but when I release the bag it just gets in the current and pulls the net downstream away from my scoop. The Pro Mar net bag is basically the same as a drift sock under water in any current. The fish starts thrashing with his head and 2/3 of his body just over the edge of the net. The 20# leader pops (I think the swivel or weight was caught in the net by now) and in an instant he is gone.

We are bummed, but the result was fine by both of us. The fish went back green, and we got the best of him so it was still worthy of getting the flask back out. My bud, will not accept the catch per IGFA rules, so I get my second botched net job in the last month.

So, the biscuit of all this is: Is there a better net bag for this? I like that I can net fish with the Pro-Mar and not hurt them, but I don't like the other issues that come with it. All that extra fabric getting caught on everything, and the way it acts under water. Have any of you modified one of these soft-mesh bag to be a lot shallower?

Thanks in advance.

When I fish by myself I fold the bottom of the bag up and rubber band it so it isn't dragging in the current when I'm trying to net solo. Once the fish is in the net the weight of the fish pops the band and into the bag it goes. Hooks do what hooks do, they stick in sh!t, sometimes where you don't want them to...

Netting on anchor w/ C&R bags is a beech.... whether its soft fine mesh bags, heavily coated bags, or rubberized baskets.

Anything short of the perfect axial push/pull execution is going to result in a major struggle. These bags most certainly put a lot more profile in the water for the current to push against, greatly magnifying the struggle factor if the net has to be maneuvered in any way underwater (other than an elegant axial push-pull). This is something you will have to accept w/ any decent C&R bag. Netting while free-floating in neutral greatly reduces this effect. That's my first choice any time the situation makes it an option.

Couple hints I'd share for successful anchor netting.

First off, resist the temptation to net a fish directly downstream of the boat, no matter how easy it might look. Yes it can be done with very experienced hands (on both the rod and the net) Thrusting a net downriver puts all of the mechanics of netting in current AGAINST the netman.

First off, the current is pushing the fish AWAY from the net. When it's time for the netman to make his move, instead of an open parachute to freely admit the fish, the current wants to immediately close the bag... there's simply no place for the fish to DROP. And when the rod man does drop his tip, the fish doesn't just drop, it drops DOWNRIVER... away from the net! If something goes even slightly wrong in the netting sequence, the chances for recovery are slim to none as the net is now in the most disadvantageous position for a rescue maneuver.

A better way....

1) Rodman should be positioned forward (upcurrent) from the netman.
2) Rodman should play the fish low and to the side, tip buried in the water as much as humanly possible.
3) Rodman should NOT lift the fish to the surface until the fish has been coaxed into a position well upstream of his own and the fish is ready to lay over (however briefly) on its side.
4) When that fish comes up, rodman immediately directs its head downriver and toward the boat for the netman's impending slam dunk.

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PUSH (netman)

DROP (rodman)

PULL (netman)

Game over!

One more thing... netting a fish on anchor IN CURRENT is probably one of the most stressful encounters you can put a fish thru.

The fish tends to get crushed against the mesh. The mesh does not want to stay open for easy access to the fish for de-hooking/release. It's just a real struggle to handle a fish in the water under such conditions.

If you must.... always try to position the fish with its head upriver. Grab the lower lip and pull upriver. This will encourage the fish to lay straight, minimizing the amount of profile against the crushing current.

Once dehooked and recovered, just get the head to clear the hoop, the rest of the fish will follow.... it'll be off in a flash.

I bought a new "knotless net" for the R 6 salmon season......I couldn't believe the extra effort it took, to get the net to go thru the water, to net the fish .....I changed back to my old net

I like rubber bags for C&R nets although many don't due to the "drag" factor. There are a number of benefits both for the fish and the anglers. If you don't drag them through the water and just do the dip and lift, you won't notice much of a difference.

Ranger makes a good one for silver/steelhead sized fish.

I like the Beckman pen fin saver bags for kings.

No more stuck hooks with these options either. Bonus.

Thanks all. We did it pretty much like Francis stated above, he just turned his head into the mesh and caught the hook on the way over the rim and that cock-ed up the whole works. It was a big hook it must have been sticking out the side of the jaw. It could have been the weight (which is below the rig) snagging somewhere too.

I have a rubber net and it is fine but this fish would not have fit in it. Looking back I should have just pulled the pin and tried to dodge the brush and other boats/lines below us. At least taking the current out of the equation.

I am going to stick with the de-hooker method for my fish next to the boat unless I can get to a beach. Francis is right monkeying around with a fish in that net in the current sucks.

I think having a buoy on your anchor line is mint for fishing on anchor. Just drop out and net on the drift. Good thread, I have a buoy in the garage and I'm definitely going to get it hooked up before I run into the same situation.

sweet idea w the rubber band. thx

Add to that a one-way slider (EZ Marine puller), rope bag (chinookoutdoorgear), lots of rope and a good anchor.
Dropping out is a good thing when it comes to anchor fishing.

Everyone should buy one of these PERIOD! http://frabill.com/landing-nets/conservation-series/9525.html

I have put two twenty pound kings in this net and not tangle one! After hundreds of fish and no hooks stuck in net also ZERO gill ripping I took every other net I had and burned them! Yes the bag is a bit heavy and they are way over priced but the quality of the product and getting back in the water far out weighs all of it! Make sure you get the one I posted since it has the coating and the medium deep bag. The others they sell are not the same.

Thanks for the link. That sucker is $135! They don't sell replacement bags separate I suppose. I have a net with that size hoop already. Is the mesh coated, how does it keep from getting hooks stuck in it?

For $135, I will just use pliers and risk losing the fish.

Now $199

I've got a nice Frabill with the coated tangle free basket, but after a couple years and a few larger fish almost swimming out of the net, I know I need a deeper basket. Great for silvers and pinks. Scary on big ling cod and kings.

Mike

Karry is absolutely positively spot on regarding that conservation series net. I have one for river steel and salmon, and a second (the mondo musky size one) for the big salt water boat. They are the shiz fo sho. They don't cure bad technique nor bad luck, but they do certainly help me solo net a lot of fish on anchor in moving water, or on the troll,

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They show a replacement bag for 109.99. Not sure it is the size you are looking for.

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Haha...found my net on their site, and yes the appropriate bag would be the Mod # 4665 at $109.99.

I paid something like $79 for the net, a lot less than Frabill's site.

It is model # 5521, which is a halibut net. I suppose due to the wide mouth and wide flat bottom. But it's only about 20" deep. This is why large fish can swim out, even when the net his held vertical out of water to trap the fish below the hoop.

I'll have to go back to the store and see if they have either the replacement net or I'll get a whole new net. $110 for the bag sounds steep.

Thanks

Mike