If landing nets don’t rate highly on your priority list of fly fishing gear and gadgets, let me ask you this one question. Have you ever felt intense pain at losing a big fish? Yes? Read on. No? Read on, you may yet be spared!😉
On average you are more likely to part company with large fish during the first and last ten seconds of battle. 8/10 losses in the last ten seconds result from nets being too small. Let’s look at two examples of this.
A few years ago a long time regular at Loynton Lakes had an ambition to catch a 20lb+ trout at the venue. He spent significant time and effort in this pursuit and I suggested to him that upgrading his landing net would enable the netting of his target fish, when the time came to go much better. Unfortunately, my words were not taken seriously until the person concerned hooked and lost his prize during attempted netting. What went wrong? Yes, you probably guessed, the net was too small for the fish! Following this experience the net deficiency was corrected. Late, yes. However there is a happy ending. He succeeded in landing not one but two rainbow trout exceeding 20 pounds in weight during seasons that followed and continues to own a big landing net.
Mayfly time is renowned for luring large river trout to the surface and this year was no different. In the photograph above you can see a quality trout in my landing net recovering prior to release. This fish and several others had to be played very hard in confined space and netted quickly for a successful landing. Also better for fish survival. The net used and shown is a short handled salmon net, to give you some idea of scale. Using this for my own river trout fishing and guiding ensures I can always efficiently net fish myself and for my clients. While a typical pan style river net is fine for most fish, netting large fish is a struggle, why take the risk when eliminating it is so easy?
Large net’s also benefit fish welfare. More space means the chance of crushing vital organs is minimised, maximising survival rates for released trout. Finally, if you are concerned that a large net is less maneuverable? Remember, when netting fish, the fish should be brought to the net, not the other way around!
I hope this gives you some thoughts and ideas enabling you to land more big fish!
SJY