There’s going to come a day when you don’t have your net. Maybe you efigured you didn’t need it and left it at home. Perhaps your kid dropped it in the water. Given Murphy’s Law, that will probably be the same day that someone in the boat hooks the largest fish of their life. So, how do you land a fish without a net?
There are six good ways to land a fish without a net: (1) Grab the fish by its mouth. (2) Cradle the fish by its belly. (3) Lift the fish by the back. (4) Grab the fish by its gill plate. (5) Swing them in the boat. (6) Fashion a lasso of sorts and loop it around the fish.
Let’s take a closer look at these options so you are ready when the time comes to land a fish by hand.
Assess the Situation to Choose the Best Response
Before you decide on one of those five options, you need to assess the situation. You have three main concerns:
- The type of fish on the line, and if it has teeth or other sharp defenses;
- What type of lure you’re using, and where the fish is hooked;
- What is best for the fish.
You’re not going to want to lip a northern pike as you’ll end up losing your finger. Likewise, you’d need to be careful about going for the back of a neck of a bullhead, as you could be painfully finned.
You also need to consider where the hook is attached before you stick your hand near the fish. For example, it would make little sense to approach the left gill plate if there was a hook dangling right next to it.
Finally, you need to consider the fish itself. If you intend to release the fish after a photo, then you need to do your best to ensure its well-being. A very large fish shouldn’t be lifted from its mouth of gill plate without also supporting its body.
I’d also like to make it clear that you should never attempt to drag a fish onto shore. This will rub off their protective slime and could push rocks, twigs, and other debris into their gills. This would be disastrous for their health and they might perish soon after.
As exciting as the whole situation is, you need to remember to look before you act. Try to make the safest decision possible for you and the fish. In another post I mentioned several species-specific safety tips for fishing with kids.
1. Land a Fish by Its Mouth
Certain fish, like bass, can be held by the mouth. This is a common way to land fish without a net, and the method often employed in B.A.S.S. Elite tournaments that don’t allow their anglers to use a net.
The most common place to grab is their lower lip. For smaller fish, this is usually done by placing your thumb inside the mouth and pinching it tightly against your pointer and middle finger, which remain on the outside.
I’ll sometimes reverse the hold for larger fish, and place my four main fingers into its mouth and press against my thumb which is on the outside. This might not look as great for photos, but it gives me a better hold.
Whatever you choose, it puts you in a predicament. After all, didn’t the fish just eat the lure with their mouth? You want to be very careful and understand if you truly have room to reach in and grab the mouth. If you misjudge, you could be hooked yourself.
When you do latch on, you’d better latch on HARD. Ensure that the fish can’t shake off and immediately jab you. There are few situations worse than finding yourself connected to the thrashing head of a powerful fish by the same treble hook.
If you’re not careful, you can also hurt the fish by doing this. When lifting a bass by the mouth it is very important that you try to lift as vertically as possible. If you lift it at a 3/4 angle, you’ll put undue stress on its jaw and run the risk of breaking the only method it has to eat.
If you need to hold it this way, you want to support its body by the belly at the same time. Failing to do this will mean that most of the weight of the fish is pulling down on the jaw, stretching and stressing it.
2. Land a Fish by Its Belly
You’ll often see professional fishermen fight a fish over to the side of their bass boat, sit down in the drivers seat, and then lean over their boat to cradle the fish in their arm and lift the fish out by its belly.
While this is a good way to get wet, it’s also much safer for you than trying to fit your fingers perfectly into a mouth that’s full of hooks. Thus, it can be an ideal way to land fish if you forget your net.
It also is ideal if you’re using very light line or the fish isn’t hooked very well. This is because when you try to grab a fish by the mouth, you have a tendency to pull the fish’s head up out of the water to get a better angle. If you try and do this with light line or a fish that’s barely hooked, the lack of water supporting the weight of either could spell disaster.
This technique also seems to calm bass down–especially smallmouth. This is good because smallmouth tend to fight like crazy all the way to the boat. If you can cradle them under their belly, they lose a lot of this fight and start cooperating better. This makes it more likely that you can manage to get them in the boat.
3. Grabbing a Fish by the Back
Some fish, like bullhead and smaller catfish, are best held by their back. This is because these fish have sharp spines on their dorsal and pectoral fins that can leave quite the welt.
To accomplish this, brace the webbing between your pointer finger and thumb against the dorsal spine so the tip of it can’t harm you as seen in the photo below.
4. Land the Fish by Its Gill Plate
Northern pike and other toothy critters can be safely lifted by grabbing their gill plate. Note that I said gill plate and not gills. You should never lift a fish by its gills as that will severely injure it (imagine being carried around by your lungs).
This is a full-hand technique where you want to curl your four fingers so your hand resembles a “C” (backwards in the case of your right hand). Your four fingers go into the space between the last gill and the gill plate. The pads of your fingers will press against the gill plate and the back of your fingers would face towards (but do not touch) the last gill.
Because you’re placing your hand awfully close to a mouth full of teeth, this hold can be somewhat intimidating, but it’s important to use this grip with authority so that you can control the fish and prevent it from thrashing.
It should be noted that this isn’t actually the best way to hold a larger pike. The pressure of hanging vertically can damage their internal organs. A fish much larger than the one above would be better off being held by the gill plate in a more horizontal fashion, while supporting the rest of its body weight further down along its belly.
5. Swing the Fish Into the Boat
You’ll notice that many professional bass fishermen swing their fish into their boats. While this is clearly a favorite method of landing fish for professionals who aren’t allowed to use a net, if you try this yourself under the wrong conditions you’ll quickly find that it doesn’t work for every situation!
The basic theory of this technique is that you use the fish’s own momentum to swing it up in into the boat. This makes this is a split-decision type of thing. As the fish is approaching the boat, try to get a look at how well it is hooked. If you think it is hooked well enough, proceed forward.
Once the fish is on its way to the boat, “choke up” on the rod a bit. Place one hand slightly above the reel seat and the other on the but of the rod to give yourself some more leverage.
As the fish’s head is within range, swing it in with one fluid motion. Do your best to grab the fish while it is in the air and without letting it touch the deck so as to minimize injury to your prize.
Swinging fish into the boat is risky for many reasons:
- The hook can tear out from the fish when you start your swing. This is especially likely if the fish is barely hooked or you’re using a thin hook.
- The fish’s weight can cause your line to snap.
- If you’re attempting this with too large of a fish on too weak of a rod, your rod can break.
- You could seriously injure the fish. This is not a gentle way to land them, especially if you let them slam into your boat at the end of the swing.
If you’re going to try this on all but the smallest fish, make sure you have are fishing with a strong hook, strong line, and a strong rod.
6. Who Needs a Net? Land the Fish Using a Lasso
I have never used this technique but apparently it is easy enough for kids to use.
I was recently watching a video of a group of kids using this technique on a giant sturgeon they found while tubing in a local river.
Basically, they tied a noose and managed to loop it around the fish. They then pulled it tight, and dragged the fish to shore as seen in their YouTube video:
I would caution you to check your local regulations before attempting this with any sturgeon that you see. There are many areas in the country where this species is endangered and you aren’t allowed to fish for them, period.
These kids didn’t do anything wrong – they caught it during the open “catch and release” season for the fish in their state. As you can see, did just that. I’m just saying, different states have different rules, so know yours.
Conclusions
There are few things more exciting about having a huge fish on the end of your line. Unfortunately, there are few things more dejecting than realizing that you don’t have a net to land it! Even so, with these six tips, you should have a decent chance to successfully land even large fish without a net so you can take a quick photo.
If this all seems a bit much for you, by all means purchase a net. In general, it will be safer for you and for the fish if you use one, but bear in mind that there are also things that can go wrong there. I wrote another post that discusses how to net a fish that you can check out once you own one.
As always, if you found this article helpful, please consider sharing it so it can help others. If you enjoyed these tips, consider purchasing my book for many more.
Thanks,
John Paxton
