Fishing nets - Active fishing gear

Bagnets and dragnets are used for catching fishes in drained ponds, fish storage ponds, channels, etc., where it is necessary to catch large amounts of fish in a smaller volume of water.

Nets with smaller mesh sizes are called bagnets and bigger nets with larger mesh sizes for catching commercial sizes of fishes are called dragnets.

The principle is to catch fishes while towing a net through the water by both ends. These nets differ from beach seine nets in size - bagnets and dragnets are shorter and deeper, sometimes with deep cod-ends.

Haul - moving a net through the water is accomplished by an operating staff, vehicle or boat and/or their combination. During the net hauling, the net is capturing fishes. Fishes are gathered in the net approximately in the middle. Sometimes the net contains a cod-end for gathering the fishes.

Gathering fishes to one site of the net should be carried out preferentially in deeper water to unsure enough space for caught fishes and also to precede damage of the net.

Beach seine net should not be used for pulling out the catch to a shore or a boat or for other manipulation with fishes. Fishes are always removed from the net using hand nets and landing nets, depending on fish size.

Bagnets and dragnets consist of body of netting, which is sewn to a bag-shape (cod end). Along its perimeter, the net is strengthen by one or two lines of larger mesh sizes from thicker material. Thick spun ropes thread through the top and the bottom lines. Floats and the lead line are connected to the top and to the bottom line, respectively. The lead in the lead line is weaved round by textile fibre to the form of a rope.

Bagnets and dragnets for pond fisheries are usually provided with maces at both ends. Maces are wooden bars and if they are lead in vertical position they enable control the haul and the depth of the net.

Netting without knots from polyamide (PA) fibres are used for beach seine nets. The knotless net is careful for caught fishes.

Bagnets are made in a range of mesh sizes from 6 mm (for fry) to common carp mesh sizes 30 mm.

The thread diameter of common netting is quite thick - 1.2 or 2.0 mm (for technical description see details 210/6 - 210/42).

Nets are seamed twice along the perimeter by polyamide strings of thread diameter 6 - 14 mm, depending on the net size.

Floats on the top line are from polystyrene (PES) and distance between them is 40 - 60 cm.

The weight of the lead line ranged from 200 to 300 g.m-1.

standard - shape of trapezoid for common application

deep - shape of rectangle with skewed sides from a half.

A net of this shape is suitable for fish storage ponds (small net width) or for conditions where high amount of fishes needs to be caught in a relatively small space.

Sizes are width (distance between maces) and depth of a net (depth of a cod end).