Bass Fishing Tip of the Week 03/01/08: Properly Netting Your Bass

I remember a buddy tournament in my early years of bass fishing where my partner and I came in 2nd behind 1st by only 12 ounces. Although we had a load of nice fish we were still one fish shy of our limit. We had consistent bites and hookups all day, but lost a couple right at the boat. One lost fish in particular bugged me for a long time because of a botched net job. It was a nice 2-3 pound fish, all that we needed for the 1st place paycheck.

Here's what caused the bad net job. We were throwing rattletraps in the chrome blue back color along a nice hydrilla line in 4-5 foot of water when I hooked our 1st fish of the day. I yelled to my partner to get the net, and he reeled in his line and quickly went for the net. Unfortunately, the net was a retractable type and wasn't fully retracted. By the time the net was readied, I already had the fish at the side of the boat and noted that it was barely hooked by the rear treble.

My partner jumped up beside me readying the net. The fish surged under the boat and I let the fish pulled by disengaging my reel and thumbing it as I didn't want it to "tear" off. I re-engaged the drive, and asked my partner to get ready as I started to put some pressure on the fish and was trying to get it up and near the side of the boat once more.

The fish surfaced, but headed away from my partner. He quickly dipped the net behind the fish and tried to scoop it. When he did this, he bumped the tail of the fish with the frame of the net and the fish surged and tore off. Needless to say I was ticked off and have since learned the proper way to net a bass.

Here's a list of pointers to improve your netting technique:

1- If you have a net, make sure it's on the deck out of the rod locker and in the fully retracted ready position.

2- Don't lay anything on the net such as tackle boxes, rods, markers, etc. The net must be fully ready and unobstructed.

3- Net the fish from the front if at all possible. By scooping from the front of the fish, if you touch the fish with the frame, the fish will simply swim hard into the net rather than away from the net.

4- When netting the fish, try not to "hit" or "bump" the fishing line/lure. This will create slack or may even unhook the bass.

5- Once the fish is netted, bring the fish quickly into the boat.

6- When your partner yells "Fish On!", quickly reel in your line. This prevents your partner's fish from getting tangled in your line.

So if you want to be more successful in landing your fish,  try these techniques to be a better bass angler.