Catching Bait
Avoid Spooking
the bait! the most common mistake and the one that will get you
into trouble with your fellow netters is driving through a
school of popping bunker. The best approach is drifting through
with your engine off. There are times when the bait are thin on
top, spread out and spooky, this is the hardest time for a
netter the last thing you need is more pressure.
Using Electronics
Rather than settling for less
bait with more throws I choose to find thicker schools by using
my boat electronics (fish finder) to locate the bait. paying
Bait under the boat can appear as anything from a lump to
mountain, sometimes extending from the bottom or suspended off
the bottom. To avoid over shooting you must know the location of
the boats transducer is very important in pinpointing where the
bait is in relation to the boat. Have the net loaded and ready
to throw. watch the screen as you begin the drift over the
school; remember to calculate the nets position in reference to
where the boat transducer is mounted. You should start the throw
at the point where the school first appears on the screen. This
will allow the net enough time to open and sink over the most
bait. Let the net sink to near bottom before pulling the net up,
as you pull the net up your success will be obvious by that
telltale feeling of a full net of the bait fish trying to
escape.
Unloading the net once
the net is up at the side of the boat. I have seen so many
people just pull the net over the side this can result in a torn
net and more importantly a sore back. Keep in mind the net is
usually made of mono that is 15-20 test and now you have load
from 20-200 lbs in the net.
Instead pull the net to the boat
and grasp the Horn (the plastic ring) and the pull rope. Hold
them both in the left hand and with the right reach down and
grasp a piece of the net lifting a portion at a time in the boat
this will save both you and the net. Now get the horn and rope
in the right hand and lift the left side. Now what you are in
the boat with a net full of bait, grasp the horn only and lift
it as high as you can. Depending on the size of your net you may
have to get stand up on an upper deck, cooler, chair, bucket or
a motor cover to fully extend the net. Now start shaking the net
most all the bait should fall into the boat. If you have a live
well in your deck or a large basket shake the net into them,
this speeds up the process and keeps the boat cleaner. There are
times when the last bat fish in the net are stuck in the net
webbing (gilled). REMEMBER TAKE ONLY WHAT YOU CAN USE they are
a gift from the fish gods and abuse gets everyone upset.
Proper
storage and care of
the net will increase the life of the net and will avoid the net
from tarring prematurely. Before I leave the dock I usually fill
a 5 gallon bucket with a cap full of soap and fresh water (Salt
water is OK in a pinch). Once I’m finished catching bait I will
put the whole net and line in in the bucket until I get back to
the dock. Once back at the dock I rinse the net with fresh water
to remove any soap residue, stretch the net and let it dry.
Every 4-5 usages of the net I will substitute the soap for
fabric softener this will give you a much more pliable net and
it smells great.
Storage is the one thing I see
most people do wrong. The key is to have a dry net in storage
and never store a wet net. However there are times when it is
not possible to completely dry a net before storage example;
rainy days, nights, and no time. The one thing that will kill a
net (besides a blue fish) is storing moist net in a
bucket with no holes at the bottom and around the sides. A moist
net will retain some water and it will then start to fill the
very bottom of the bucket. A net left sitting in water and heat
from trapped air will prematurely break down the mono and
shorten the life of the net. The holes in the bucket allow the
moisture to weep out and the air to circulate.
For more help I
can be reached at
Good luck! Charlie Kay
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