For centuries, nets have been used to catch fish. Today, a variety of nets are found in fishing, ranging from small, hand-held nets for retrieving bait fish from live wells to huge commercial nets that can catch thousands of large fish at a time. Regardless of the size of the net, the principle is still the same: Fish and other aquatic life are captured by scooping them up in a piece of webbed fabric.
Dip Nets
Dip nets usually are made with a wire loop and a metal, plastic or wooden handle. These nets often are small and can be managed with one hand. They usually have a fine mesh and often are used to retrieve bait fish from live wells.
Landing Nets
Landing nets are used to manage fish caught by rod and reel. These nets range in size from single-hand nets with short handles for controlling smaller fish to large, long-handled nets that can control fish weighing more than 100 pounds. These nets often are coated with nylon or rubber to prevent fish scales from being lost and abrasions from occurring to a fish, protecting it for release.
Cast Nets
Cast nets are made of nylon monofilament and come in a range of meshes. The net forms a large cone. Along the edge of the circle is a lead line, which acts as a weight. In the center of the net is a bushing, and heavy-duty monofilament line is threaded through it, then tied to the lead line. These lines are tied together and connected to a long hand line. The net is cast by hand, opening to a full circle and dropping into the water to trap bait fish, shrimp or other prey. To retrieve the net, the hand line is pulled up, and the monofilament lines threaded through the bushing gather the lead line into a purse to trap whatever is inside.
Seine Nets
A seine net usually is made of a long sheet of netting with two large handle boards attached to each end. A seine net is stretched across a waterway, then dragged through the water, trapping anything in its path. These nets are commonly used to catch bait fish. They also are used in aquaculture farms and koi ponds. Seine nets often are made of knotless mesh netting to avoid injuring fish.
Commercial Fishing Nets
Commercial nets are used to catch hundreds or even thousands of fish at a time. Trawling nets are shaped like giant bags and are dragged along the bottom to catch scallops, clams, oysters and other shellfish and bottom-dwelling fish. Gill nets are long sheets of netting that are held to the bottom by lead weights. The top edge of the net is held up with floats, and fish passing through the net are caught in the mesh by their gill plates. The purse seine net is deployed from a boat in a large circle around a school of fish. Once the school is encircled, the bottom of the net is gathered up to form a purse. The net then is drawn in to capture fish.
About this Author
In Jacksonville, Fla., Frank Whittemore is a content strategist with almost a decade of experience as a Navy Hospital Corpsman and licensed paramedic and more than 15 years writing for several Fortune 500 companies. Whittemore writes on topics that include medicine, nature, science, technology, the arts, cuisine, travel and sports.
