# C&R with or without a net



## visser (Oct 20, 2007)

I was wondering what the general opinion here is about using a net for catching and releasing a fish. I have read that is better to use a net than using your wet hands, and I have also read that it is better to use your wet hands than use a net. I have never used a net but I always make sure my hands are wet before I touch the fish. I guess I want to know what everybody else is doing and why.


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## FLYFSHR (Apr 16, 2008)

Yea I've heard the same also along with the rubber nets being better.
I'd like to read some other responses as well.

Personaly I don't do either. When I bring the fish in I barely pull its head out of the water and take my fly out with forecepts releasing fish. Never been touched nor pulled out of water.
~FLYFSHR~


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## fixed blade XC-3 (Sep 11, 2007)

Fatbass has the best answer to the question. Fatbass care to chime in?


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

If they're keepers, I do use a net. When C&R I do not touch the fish and try to de-hook it while it is still in the water...I haven't learned how _not_ to use a net when on my pontoon though....


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## Improv (Sep 8, 2007)

.45 said:


> If they're keepers, I do use a net. When C&R I do not touch the fish and try to de-hook it while it is still in the water...I haven't learned how _not_ to use a net when on my pontoon though....


I agree with the pontoon problem.

I would say that there are circumstances when not using a net works best, i.e., smaller fish. However, if not using a net means you have to play the fish longer in order to get it to a place where you can get the hook out, then I say use a net. In my opinion fish stress is far more fatal then potential infection you may cause by removing the fish's protective slime - which seems to be the number one reason for not using a net. If they make nets that do a better job at protecting the fish's slime, then I say use them.


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## Packfish (Oct 30, 2007)

Pontoon --you need the 5 or 6 ft rubber meshed net. And then you need a hook release tool so you don't even have to touch the slimer. A wooden dowel and a tea cup hook - about 40 cents takes care of that.


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## campfire (Sep 9, 2007)

I use a net most of the time. The biggest reason is that when nymphing I like to use tandom flies and after a fish slips out of your hand and jams the dropper into a finger a time or two a net sounds much better. But I have no problem with using a net for C&R either. The knock on a net is scrapping the protective slime from the fish. But I think the less you handle fish and the more gentle you handle fish the better the survival after release. I have found it is difficult to controle a large fish by hand without griping pretty hard. In an allready pre moistened net you can controle a fish much easier and more gently to unhook and release without ever handling the fish at all. I think the more gentle handling of a net outweighs any slime loss in a premoistened net. However, when I dry fly fish the Uinta streams where the fish are allmost allways small and I typically use only one fly, I seldom use a net for convience sake. And the fish are small enough that they don't have to be manhandled to unhook and release.


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## duckaddict (Dec 31, 2007)

I think packfish had it right. If you don't want to touch the fish at all a simple hook release tool does the trick for me.

They're sold all over, here is a link to Cabela's for the Ketchum Release tool:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templ ... stid=71981


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## Packfish (Oct 30, 2007)

Just put a tea cup hook on the end of a 6" or whatever length you want wooden dowel about the diameter of a high lighter..
use it basically like the catch and release tool. It works better than the tool , doesn't ever cut line and is cheap. Only draw back is that you should have 6# or heavier line .


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## gunplay (Apr 28, 2008)

I second the Ketchum release. Works great for me and when I broke one last year, they replaced with no questions asked.


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## Treehugnhuntr (Sep 7, 2007)

FLYFSHR said:


> Yea I've heard the same also along with the rubber nets being better.
> I'd like to read some other responses as well.
> 
> Personaly I don't do either. When I bring the fish in I barely pull its head out of the water and take my fly out with forecepts releasing fish. Never been touched nor pulled out of water.
> ~FLYFSHR~


That's my method as well. In 23 years of fly fishing, I've never owned a net.


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## threshershark (Sep 7, 2007)

I use a rubber net on my pontoon.

For smaller trout, I use the no-handling/forceps approach mentioned.

For larger fish, I make an effort not to exhaust the fish. I like to bring them in as fresh as my leader allows, and release them quickly. I find with bigger fish that unless the trout is close to exhaustion it can be hard to manipulate them for easy release.

I have a medium-length net handle that gives me enough reach to collect larger fish prior to exhaustion, and the net allows easy control and release without having to grab/squeeze in any way. The net stays in the water, and the rubber material is gentle on the fish's coating. It's a means of in-water containment and I think it's less stressful to net them with some fight left in them as opposed to waiting until they completely give in and let you access the hook.

On the size of fish Tree catches, no net needed.


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

threshershark said:


> I use a rubber net on my pontoon.
> 
> For smaller trout, I use the no-handling/forceps approach mentioned.
> 
> ...


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## Treehugnhuntr (Sep 7, 2007)

.45 said:


> threshershark said:
> 
> 
> > I use a rubber net on my pontoon.
> ...


[/quote:lx1yyka4]

BOTH OF YOU GUYS HAVE IT COMING!
THE WRATH OF TREE IS NIGH! :mrgreen:


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## fixed blade XC-3 (Sep 11, 2007)

Tree why are you whispering?


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