Keep Nets

[ian g]

There are some that would say keep nets are outdated and have no place in modern fish welfare angling they do now. You know the type feather beds, antiseptic creams and kissing the fish better. I would say be careful because where does angling fit in with modern fish and animal welfare.

Spot on Steve , I don't use a keep net anymore , I used to use one all the time , My main reasons for not using them is I fish rivers more now and adopt a more roving style and I can't be bothered lugging one about, that's a personal choice and not one I would force on others. The more things we ban or give up the more power to the people who is fishing as cruel and outdated (their views not mine)

 

[sam vimes]

I'm afraid that I'm one of those that doesn't believe that keepnets do no harm whatsoever, even when used properly. I consider even a simple loss of protective slime as unnecessary. However, using them properly does minimize the impact. I rarely use a keepnet because of this.

However, I fully accept that there are times that using keepnets is a small, but necessary, evil. Match fishing is obviously one of those times. Whilst match fishing isn't my thing, I can't see how it could function without keepnets. Whilst it might be contradictory, it doesn't surprise me one bit when a fishery only allows keepnets to be used in matches. Those of us that don't match fish may find this hypocritical, but when you consider just how much income matches bring in for some fisheries, it's no surprise. The bottom line is that matches absolutely need to use keepnets, pleasure anglers don't.

There are times when I know that it may be beneficial to an angler to use a keepnet. When fishing for shoal fish, especially roach and dace, releasing fish back to the shoal can impact on your chances of continuing to catch. I know that I could occasionally have a better day if I used a keepnet. It's a price I'm prepared to pay.

 

[john step]

I use a keep net when perch fishing a still water. I cannot prove it but I seem to catch more when I haven't released one to warn its mates.
It is usually put up the bank a bit away from my fishing spot.

Other than that I find the whole thing about drying out nets a bit of a bind.

 

[markcw]

I agree drying them out is a bind, after a match mine get washed under the outside tap at home and either
laid out at the bottom of the garden or hung from the fence, this is done whether I is raining or not,
the same goes for my landing nets,which are washed and dried after every session, also my net bag.

 

[hantstench]

Really cannot see any use for keepnets and specialist anglers shun them. I suppose the match boys need something to stick their catch in, but beyond that they belong in the angling sixties

 

[nottskev]

Really cannot see any use for keepnets and specialist anglers shun them. I suppose the match boys need something to stick their catch in, but beyond that they belong in the angling sixties

I'm content that we can each use a keepnet or not, as we think fit, but I'm not so sure that any group - specialist,match or generalist - has the moral high ground in such a clear way. In terms of what we impose on the fish post-capture, specialists might not "stick" them in a keepnet, it's true. But they can go in for quite a lot of other business, which could be seen to also subject fish to unnecessary risk and stress.

According to the fish retention guide on the Carpology site, it's ok to keep the fish in a landing net for 15 minutes, in a retention sling for 45 mins , and a in carp sack for up to 5 hours. And that's to allow time for setting up the further business of weighing and photographing. If retaining fish in a keepnet, to be briefly inspected, quickly photographed, or possibly not, and swiftly returned belongs in the 60's, it's not clear that retaining them for various lengths of time, then obsessively checking individual fish's weight and staging extravagant photo shoots (I've seen specialists turn this stage into a protracted performance) is significantly more advanced.

My point is not to set one branch of angling against another; the opposite, in fact.

 

[thecrow]

specialist anglers shun them.

Really? then how do specialist anglers pop up in the weeklies with braces of fish on a regular basis?

Can I ask where you would rest a large fish during summer and low oxygen levels.

I have used keepnets, sacks, Barbel and Pike tunnels and my landing net to rest fish in before release far better to allow a large fish that has fought hard to rest than have it belly up out of reach or worse still floating down a river.

 

[Philip]

If keepnets are banned then it wont stop there.

Landing nets next ?

Lets keep chipping away around the edges till we get to banning hooks then we can all take up golf.

 

[tigger]

Personally I have no use for a keepnet, i mean whats the point of keeping a fish in a net?
IMO the whole object/pleasure part of catching fish with a rod and line is the actual catching and playing them in. Very often if I get a fish near the bank and the hook pops out i'm still happy because i've had the pleasure of playing it in but don't have the hasstle of unhooking it, especially when stood mid river in freezing conditions catching squirmy grayling!
When I was a kid it was standard practice to use a keepnet and everyone I knew would use one.....it was a sort of tradition which imo was a bad one...as I said jmo.
Even playing a fish in for a few minuites is only a short period of stress for a fish so I see no reason to prolong the stress by sticking it into a net for hours.....it's pointless in'it.
After saying all that I wouldn't ban the practice of using a keepnet as obviously some people still have the old tradition of using one firmley engrained in their heads and that's their decision which I believe they're entitled to.

 

[Richox12]

I personally do not see anything wrong with a correctly used and positioned keepnet. It mainly comes down to common sense. I realise some don't have much though. That said, we could debate all manner of things we thought might not be good for the fish - in the wrong hands.