Had a good thread on the subject of gill nets a while back a few years back but think it got deleted in the last watcha call it . Shame had alot of good info.

Guess time for another one mabye and just all about all this stuff. So anyone mess with gill nets ? Build or buy ? Fresh or salt water ? How do you set and use them. So on and so on

The majority consensus last time was that Memphis Net & Twine was the place to purchase gill nets and materials.

https://www.memphisnet.net/

Keith

We used to net smelt along the shores of Lake Michigan back when I was a teenager and my dad and his buddies did before us. We would throw out an anchor line,then attach what they called a trolley on the line. It was a weight with two legs with wheels on the end that rode on the line. Thenhave line on the trolley go to the gill net then a line on the other end of the gill net for you to let the net down and back up .. Needed a sharp edge like a breakwater or such for the net to hang right. When the run was hot we'd pull up the net and it would look like a fish blanket, tasted great too.The smaller ones we'd just toss in the hot oil whole. You could see the line shake and touch it and you feel the fish hitting the net. Night time was best a great time. Bring a grill and some thing to drink Great fun

X2 on Memphis Net & Twine.

It's a pretty good way to catch a lot of fish if they are there and you put the net in the right place,

We use them at the upstream end of an eddy. Usually 60 feet long and about 7 feet deep. 5.25" stretched mesh.

I always use Lousiana net and twine in lafayette la been doing business with billy for over a decade. I mostly fish turtle and hoopnets but know a lot of guys who fish buffalo and Cajun caviar with gill nets

Used to help fish 2-3000 feet of large mesh gill net for flounder and red drum in the Pamlico Sound in NC. NC Department of Marine Fisheries has about legislated that season out of existence, because a few sea turtles are caught each year, and a perception that our flounder are overfished. The season is very short and limits are restrictive now.

No shortage of the darn bull nosed ray, however.

We were messin' with gill nets this morning. The fishing has slowed way down in the past couple of days, so we pulled our skiffs this afternoon; done for the season.
[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9eeJoLWMxrg[/video]

Simplest way to start is to buy one ready made by any Net shop, Memphis being a big one...you need to know what fish you're targeting and size so you know what mesh size to get.Net shops can help with that...There's a lot more to it though... if it's even legal where you are or want to set...

Pretty sure they are illegal in Texas

Along with hoop nets

I do business with these guys and they sure seem to be top notch.
They have some trapping supply’s as well.

https://champlinnetco.com/

And slat traps and wire nets....

I used to do personal use gill netting for sockeye salmon in Southeast Alaska. Some serious fun. Thanks for sharing Waggler.

I’ve caught a few million pounds of carp and buffalo here in wi.-
mn-iowa boundary waters.7” stretch minimum and could never afford nets premade always bought ropes and floats and made my own leads.Buy the monofilament netting 100 pounds at a time.Pretty much a thing of the past trying to make a living at it anymore.

So I mainly order from nets and more outta jonesville LA now , partly because their two hours away and I love the way their website is set up .

But funny story when I first got into net making some ... 15years ago I think....dang I feel old lol. I found one of their catalogs som how and bigger my grandma to order me some net needed from them . End up getting me a dozen 7" needles ...still have them to this day... somewhere

Cajun caviar?

O don't get me started.
Few years back when I got interested in them I was reading all these surviveal deals and they where always saying how a gill net is such a great way to catch fish ! Ponds lakes rivers , whatever. Well I'd just came back from Kuwait and had 40k burning a howl in my pocket so I said I'm try this it's can't be that hard ! Got a premade 50' shade net . Think it was #8 mono , 3" web with a float and lead line . Then I got another that was the same but nylon webs and a 4" web. So yeast they would say just pop it out in the pond and catch fish... Well after four days a turtle and a bass in pond know where full of fish I said ...ya know ...maybe there way more to this . Soni started yapping my head off to all these guys in here and there ... Ordered my own lead and foot line , printed out everything I could . Built a few nets custom. Like #6 3" webbing tie down nets tried make them perfect to passively take these stunted panfish. Didn't care about any other way just wanted to figure out these nets ....and well I kind put it all up to come back to it and here we are years later aaannnd I've forgotten most of it lol.

Requires a commercial fishing permit in Mo.

If the web is to be thick you won’t catch much but to thin and it gets torn up pretty fast.139 mono for my purpose catches great but doesn’t last very well.Them little panfish I have no clue what to use but more like 69 or 104.

Yeepppp that's something else I learned the hard way nylon was great but caught near about any an every floating around . Spent more time picking sticks and leaves out of it then anything else , same with ligh mono . I had to basically drag mine across the bottom to get it where I wanted in these ponds and if it was anything roo light it would just tear up pretty bad

If all you want is panfish, you should be able to trap them in those clover leaf style traps, just need to adjust the funnel opening slots....you can bait them or set them up against a bank like a blind set, fish hit the trap, follow along the sides and into the funnel...