There are few moments in life more thrilling than watching your child gleefully fight their first large fish, but their happiness can soon turn to heartbreak if you don’t know how to use a landing net.
To give yourself the best chance of being the hero and successfully netting the fish, you always want to net the fish head first in a scooping motion, being careful not to hit it with any part of the net that isn’t mesh as that could knock it off the hook.
If you’ve never had to net a fish before, this can all be a little scary. All the same, the fact that you’re reading this ahead of time will help to get you through it. Let’s talk more about the different steps to landing a fish, what type of net you should use, and what to do if you need to land a fish without a net.
How to Land a Fish With a Net
When you or your fishing buddy has a large fish thrashing on the line, your objective is to make sure that fish gets into the landing net. Your goal, after all, is to pull it into the boat without it breaking off the hook.
Communicate With Your Fishing Partner
The very step is simply to communicate with your partner, be they your tournament co-angler or just your four-year-old. You both need to be on the same page and identify what each other is trying to do, and where each other is going to position themselves.
If you’re netting the fish for an adult, let them tell you what they want you to do. They’ll have a better idea if the fish is going to keep making runs or if it is tiring. Further, they’ll know where they plan to bring the fish near the boat. Let them tell you which side of the boat they plan to go to, and then stand near them but out of their way with the net ready.
If you’re netting the fish for your child, you need to take charge. Coach them through what they should do so you can land it. The most important thing to tell them is not to horse it in. It’s unlikely that a fish is going to spit the hook near the boat if constant pressure is kept on it. It is much more likely to snap the line, especially if your kid tries to lift it out of the water and towards the net.
Make Sure the Fish is Ready for the Net
A fish needs to be properly fought and ready for the net. While you don’t want to overly stress them, you do want them tired enough that they go into the net easily rather than making a sudden plunge.
The mere fact that a fish happens to be right next to the boat does not necessarily mean it is ready to be netted. Certain fish, like northern pike and chain pickerel, are renowned for following a lure right to the boat before biting. Attempting to net them immediately would be a mistake.
Play the fish out, and make sure it is ready and under control before you attempt to net it.
When trolling, a fish will let you know it is ready because it will tend to come in on its side, “surfing” through the water rather than continuing to fight. If you’re just drifting or sitting still, you’ll know they’re ready because they’ll stop fighting and will glide along wherever your rod leads them.
Position the Landing Net in the Water at an Angle
You’ll hear some people say that you shouldn’t put the net in the water until the last moment. I disagree. If you wait until the fish is close to suddenly plunge the net in, there’s a good chance you’ll end up hitting the fish and knocking it off the hook.
You are better off placing the net about 3/4 of the way in the water at about a 45˚ angle. You would then have your fishing partner guide the fish into the net with their rod, rather than jabbing towards the fish with your net.
Be Ready to Pull Back and Out of the Way
If you misjudged the fish and it continues fighting, be ready to pull the net away. If a fish hits its head or the line against the net’s rim, there’s a good chance that this will provide enough leverage to dislodge the hook. You’re better off just pulling back and waiting to try again.
Bring the Fish in Head First and Scoop It Up
You should position yourself so that you can net the fish head first. This is a little counter-intuitive. You would expect the fish to see this and get scared, but it’s hard for a fish to turn 180˚ in a tight space with a hook in its mouth. In contrast, there is nothing stopping a fish from surging or jumping if it feels the net touch its tail. If you try to net the fish from behind, chances are you’ll lose it.
While it’s usually best to let the other angler guide the fish into the net with their rod, this isn’t always possible, especially if you’re with kids, so you might need to go after the fish. This should be done with a scooping motion and never a jabbing motion. Again, you want the fish in the center of the net. You do not want to knock them off with the rim.
Once the fish is in the net, don’t delay. Scoop it up and out of the water and bring it into the boat. You’ll find that doing this often dislodges the hook so don’t play around with the fish. Get it out of the water where it might thrash and escape and safely into the boat.
Be Careful of Hooks
It’s pretty easy to get jabbed by a hook that’s in the net. Depending on how the fish is positioned, it can move the netting substantially with any jerk. I’d strongly urge you to grab the lure with some pliers and toss it over the side of the boat. Get it out of the way before you attempt to lift the fish for a photo.
What Type of Landing Net Do I Need?
You’re going to need a net large enough for the fish you intend to catch. It is very difficult to to land one if your net is too small. My father and I were fishing for longnose gar one day and just had a heck of a time landing them. All we had was a bass net. Trying to fit a 3-4′ long fish into a net designed for a 20″ bass is a very frustrating experience and we wound up losing most of them.
With that said, giant nets take up a giant amount of space. There are some models that will fold up for storage but it’s not really practical to keep them folded because that makes it challenging to have them at the ready.
I found this out the hard way. $200 later, I have a gar-sized net that rarely leaves my tackle room. It just isn’t practical to bring it along unless I’m specifically targeting that species. This is very rare, so it probably wasn’t the best buy.
It’s really a “goldilocks” situation where you’re trying to find a good balance between size and storage, but you should buy a net that is large enough for the fish you’re most likely to frequently encounter.
Also, don’t let me scare you too much with the longnose gar example. They’re a weird fish that have a long, hard snout that doesn’t bend, so you really can’t fit them in a small net. The same bass net that gave me fits with the gar has handled 10lb northern pike without an issue. I’d recommend you go with a bass net for every day use unless you’re targeting king salmon or some other giant species regularly.
Are Rubber Nets Better for Fish?
Rubber nets (and rubber-coated mesh) are indeed better for the fish than fiber mesh nets. This is because they don’t scrape away the fish’s protective slime as badly as a mesh net would.
This does make them a little bit more expensive, but even if fish slime isn’t enough to spark your inner altruism, you’re still better off with a rubber net because it will make your life easier. This is because hooks are significantly less likely to get stuck in a rubber net than a fiber mesh one.
That same treble hooked lure that would find a way to jab each and every hook point into the fibers will rest its bend harmlessly against the rubber. This will save you time, energy, and frustration. It will also tend to mean you release the fish faster, reducing stress on them and increasing their chance of survival.
Forgot Your Net? No Problem.
While landing fish with a net is certainly easier than without one, that’s not always in the cards. I’ve written an entirely separate article on how to land fish without a net. You can find it here.
Keep Things in Perspective
Netting a fish can be a stressful situation for you, your fishing partner, and the animal, so it is important that you’re as prepared for the moment as you can be.
Hopefully these tips will help you have a better experience out there on the water, but you need to bear in mind that fishing is fun because it is hard. You will lose some fish while trying to net them. Don’t let this stress you out.
No matter how big that fish is, there’s always a bigger one just around the point, and if you got it close enough to the boat to net it, at least you got to see what it was.
You can’t control how someone else will react to your failing to net their fish, but you can control how you react when someone else lets you down. Don’t make a big deal out of it. They already feel bad about it and there’s nothing they can do to fix it at this point. No fish is worth ruining a trip or friendship over!
As always, if you found this article helpful, please consider sharing it so it can help others. You might also want to check out my book. If you are trying to get your kids into this sport, or know someone who is, it’s worth a read. Please consider purchasing it for yourself or a friend.
Thanks,
John Paxton