thats a tough call Baldy, I bought a 28" Fox spoon (?30) for my barbel fishing as, like Ron, i didn't like triangles. However on 2 occasions i had barbel trap their dorsal spines in the net causing some damage to the fish and ending in me cutting a hole in the net. After the first occasion I just put it down to bad luck but on the second time of it happening i decided to seek out a barbel friendly net at any cost.
I only found one that was marketed as barbel friendly and that was a fox 32" Barbel Specialist with handle, (not very long at 6ft). This cost a whopping ?50 and even worse than that was triangular!!!! Now i've landed a fair few barbel with it and not had any problems. Now that may just be down to luck - who knows but so far so good.
personally if I was starting out barbel fishing and i read this i'd probably think balls to it, i'm not paying ?50 for a net the lads just been unlucky BUT having damaged 2 fish my thinkings changed. It may be worth looking out for a cheaper version of the Fox Barbel net i think BFW may sell one.