Why use Keep Nets outside matches?

[eric]

Ok, keep nets outside of matches debate let's have it. When not in a match, why would anyone feel the need to use a keep net? I don't and my view is that in most circumstances I don't see the need to hold the fish tbh. Posting this after seeing someone's photo post to social media. (IMO displaying good fish care is essential to the image and reputation of our pastime)

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[iain t]

Never owned one and never will. Personally, i feel it's cruel to for the fish to be cramped up in a restricted area

 

[sam vimes]

You've effectively been beaten to the punch by a very similar thread posted a few hours previously.

Use of Keep Nets?

Some folks just like to see what they've caught at the end of the day. Others believe that using them will increase their catch.

 

[tigger]

When I was a kid growing up and even into my teens we all used keepnets and then one day I thought what am I bothering using a keepnet for and I just stopped using one.
No matter how careful an angler you are and most arn't! .....the use of a keepnet usually always causes the loss of scales etc and the loss of scales alone can easily lead to infections or stress related problems.
The celebrity anglers in many of the videos on youtube revel in holding a load of fish out in a keepnet or in a landing net head (after theey've rolled the fish out of the keepnet into the landing net head) for way to long a period of time while they talk bullshine...really annoying!
Be interesting to see these people hold their breath for as long as they keep the fish out of the water?

 

[nottskev]

I don’t mind being in a minority on this point. I use a keepnet, if I want to and nothing particular – shallow water, low oxygen conditions etc – suggests I shouldn’t.

Given all the things done to fish within the sport – hooking, overpowering their impulse to flight, removing from the water, handling, weighing, photographing, I’m not too clear why retaining in a keepnet should be so reprehensible. It’s not necessary? Neither is all the rest, if you want to push that point.

I like to use a keepnet when fishing for shoal fish rather than larger specimens; balanced against this I’d say the fish I catch are out of the water being handled, filmed, admired, etc less than those of many who don’t. Whether that’s in videos made by the famous and well-respected, or on the bank by anglers who don’t have a keepnet but still manage to mess the fish around.

The argument against keepnets often begins with the phrase “Outside of matches……” If use of a keepnet is an unacceptable cruelty, what is there about combining fishing with competition and gambling that makes it ok? Net users use them for their pleasure, in a match or not – we’re just getting our pleasure in different ways. Either nets are ok for all or for none. The issue is brought into focus now that match fishing has gravitated to commercials. In matches, commercial owners are happy for anglers to stuff nets with huge quantities of large carp on hot summer afternoons, but not for me, as a pleasure angler, to amass 10lb of roach ( I don't fish for carp) in a large net on a cold winter's day.

Using a keepnet undermines angling’s public image? Most non-anglers, if the subject of fishing comes up between us, seem surprised that I don’t kill them and eat them (and a bit baffled, too, suggesting they would). None have ever disapproved of me keeping them in a big net sunk in the water.

 

[Philip]

Given all the things done to fish within the sport – hooking, overpowering their impulse to flight, removing from the water, handling, weighing, photographing, I’m not too clear why retaining in a keepnet should be so reprehensible

Agree with that. In my opinion if people are so worried about fish welfare that they question the use of a keepnet then they really need to take a step back and think about what they are doing as a pastime.

I doubt many non anglers see a keepnet as the problem and to me the risk of continuing to push fish welfare & banning things we have decided to add to the unacceptable list the closer we come to shooting ourselves in the foot when someone bans angling as a sport altogether.

 

[terry m]

But as the OP asked, why?

 

[tigger]

Agree with that. In my opinion if people are so worried about fish welfare that they question the use of a keepnet then they really need to take a step back and think about what they are doing as a pastime.

I doubt many non anglers see a keepnet as the problem and to me the risk of continuing to push fish welfare & banning things we have decided to add to the unacceptable list the closer we come to shooting ourselves in the foot when someone bans angling as a sport altogether.

When you catch a fish you rarely cause it to loose any scales and the stress it causes is short lived. Since fiah are pretty low in the brains department they soon forget being caufht and return to looking for food. When you have them in a keep net for hours on end they get stressed for a much longer period and they nearly always get scales knocked off as they roll all over one another upon being released.
Not useing a keepnet is just lessening the likelyhood of doing further damage unnecessarily.
A good m8 of mine always keeps grayling in his net and i've witnessed him with large nets full and upon releasing them there where always a number of casualties. Thinking about it a number of my pals always use nets, I do make comments to them but I ain't gonn'a fall out with em over it.
Some of them still beleive the old wives tale that releasing fish straight away will kill your swim as they go straight back to the shoal and tell them what's hapened mg:.
I simply have a different opinion than they do is all.

 

[sam vimes]

I rarely use a keepnet, regardless of a fishery allowing it and despite believing that they can improve catches at times. However, I'm not going cast aspertions at anyone that makes the opposite choice. Whilst it's not against the law, or fishery rules, individuals should be free to make their own choices without any kind of negativity from anyone else.

 

[mikench]

I have a keep net but it has yet to leave the garage! The vast majority of my waters prohibit the use of keep bets except in matches! I have never understood why! Those who fish regularly and treat fish with care cannot use a keep net but Tom **** and Harry who turn up on match day can! I know why but from a point of view of supposed fish welfare it is illogical!

I cannot see how dozens of large F1 carp stuffed in a net or nets can be beneficial to them. The commercials who follow this route are nothing if not hypocritical !

 

[nottskev]

But as the OP asked, why?

I thought I'd answered that implicitly, Terry - for the same reasons anglers, match and other, do what they do; in the end, for their enjoyment. I'm not sure why I'm expected to rationalise retaining a fish in a sport where we can hardly rationalise bothering the poor fish in the first place, I suppose it's a question, given all aspects of fishing are an imposition on the fish, of what you're comfortable with and what you feel to be damaging. If I deep-hook a fish through sloppy attention or a badly set-up rig, I feel bad; if I'm making a hash of handling a lively fish, I feel bad. If I see someone keeping a fish out of the water unnecessarily and messing about with scales and cameras, I get quite upset. But the fish in my net go back and swim off not apparently worse off, and there are very rarely any scales in the net after, and I don't feel bad about using one. I fish nets-allowed waters and sometimes nets-banned waters, and I can't say the fish in the second seem to be in better nick than the first. Indeed, it's sometimes the other way around, and I find more damaged fish, usually by poor hook choice and unhooking, on the very waters with the biggest lists of rules.

 

[peter crabtree]

Yet another topic that has been done to death on here many times before. Sam's comment below sums it up perfectly....

. Whilst it's not against the law, or fishery rules, individuals should be free to make their own choices without any kind of negativity from anyone else.

 

[nottskev]

A good m8 of mine always keeps grayling in his net and i've witnessed him with large nets full and upon releasing them there where always a number of casualties. .

I agree that grayling and keepnets don't mix well; The small grayling that have recently colonised the local Derwent need a bit of barbel-like treatment when they're returned - they are very slow to right themselves.

 

[tigger]

I have a keep net but it has yet to leave the garage! The vast majority of my waters prohibit the use of keep bets except in matches! I have never understood why! Those who fish regularly and treat fish with care cannot use a keep net but Tom **** and Harry who turn up on match day can! I know why but from a point of view of supposed fish welfare it is illogical!

I cannot see how dozens of large F1 carp stuffed in a net or nets can be beneficial to them. The commercials who follow this route are nothing if not hypocritical !

Mike, fisheries get a good wedge of coin from match anglers and so the fish are just commodities and easily replaced at a far lesser cost than what they gain the owner of the water.
In those circumstances it's just a buisness and those fish where purpose bred for the job.
However, imo fish in wild waters are a totally different matter and releasing them asap is a no brainer.

 

[tigger]

I agree that grayling and keepnets don't mix well; The small grayling that have recently colonised the local Derwent need a bit of barbel-like treatment when they're returned - they are very slow to right themselves.

Yeaph, your right Kev, grayling are a delicate fish and much better released right away. Very often I leave them in the water and slide my disgorger down the line and just give the hook a quick push and they're free to go. As you'll know they're seriously squirmy sods when you have to keep hold of em and unhook em lol.

 

[Philip]

When you catch a fish you rarely cause it to loose any scales and the stress it causes is short lived. Since fiah are pretty low in the brains department they soon forget being caufht and return to looking for food. When you have them in a keep net for hours on end they get stressed for a much longer period and they nearly always get scales knocked off as they roll all over one another upon being released.
Not useing a keepnet is just lessening the likelyhood of doing further damage unnecessarily.
A good m8 of mine always keeps grayling in his net and i've witnessed him with large nets full and upon releasing them there where always a number of casualties. Thinking about it a number of my pals always use nets, I do make comments to them but I ain't gonn'a fall out with em over it.
Some of them still beleive the old wives tale that releasing fish straight away will kill your swim as they go straight back to the shoal and tell them what's hapened mg:.
I simply have a different opinion than they do is all.

Nice speech. Now remind us of what you said you would do with any wels catfish you catch.

 

[tigger]

Nice speech. Now remind us of what you said you would do with any wels catfish you catch.

I son't see what the connection is?

I don't think Anyone needs me to remind them of my opi ion of wels catfish in non designated waters.

Philip, you seem to be on a mission recently purely to try and make scandle or something....again I ask....are you rabbit?

 

[Philip]

The connection is on one hand casting yourself as a fish loving saint and worrying about scales knocked off in a net and on the other saying on other threads how you would sling a fish up the bank to gasp its life away in the bushes.

Can you see the connection now ?

I dont know who Rabbit is.

Can you you stop telling me you dont give a toss what I think then quoting me, then winding me up, then when I finally reply make out that I am the one on a wind up.

Thanks.

 

[tigger]

The connection is on one hand casting yourself as a fish loving saint and worrying about scales knocked off in a net and on the other saying on other threads how you would sling a fish up the bank to gasp its life away in the bushes.

Can you see the connection now ?

I dont know who Rabbit is.

Can you you stop telling me you dont give a toss what I think then quoting me, then winding me up, then when I finally reply make out that I am the one on a wind up.

Thanks.

I would only throw em up the bamk after i'd knocked em on their head.

Rabbit always says he's never heard of rabbit lol.

 

[Philip]

Great so you agree then it was hypocritical and you were wrong. Glad we sorted that out.

So this Rabbit I would imagine then is one of the many (many) other people you have also rubbed up the wrong way ?

PS
LOL (why do you always add that?)