Quote:
Originally Posted by tkwalker
The down side of pitching big nets is #1 Safety .. Always carry a sheath Knife chest high on your body that can be reached easily when yanked off deck by these nets ... (Also wear a CO2 vest )It happened to me twice and the knives and vest saved My life twice...
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Yikes! I will have to keep a knife handy. I always worry about this around the dams as it is hard to rip a net out of a snag. I bet that scared the **** out of you when you got pulled over!
As for techniques of throwing the nets, I have no idea where my method came from, but it is not a teeth or shoulder method. Just have to spin the net when loading. I think putting a net full of lead in my mouth is nuts! No need to lose teeth over a few shad
I typically have carried an 8, 6, and 4 ft net in the boat. But I destroyed my 8 footer in the spring and have been using the 6 ft net a lot this year. The 4 ft net is small mesh and good for creek minnows or small shad. A standard 6 ft 3/8 net will catch lots of big gizzard shad, but not in water deeper than about 6 ft. They will just swim out from under it. It is great in shallow water and really easy to throw.
If I get back to fishing the dams a lot, a big net will be on the replacement list. On the lake side, look in shallow coves with mud bottoms for shad. These are the easiest places to find them. Plus the snags are usually pretty obvious and easy to avoid.
Jim