Net Fishing Results with pics from the weekend

[nicemustang]

I know that commerical fishing has a bad rap in some area but it's actually necessary to do it on our lake for many reasons. It's not the money, or the greed of fishing but the fishery actually NEEDS it to survive. I'm not native, metis, etc (if that matters) or is anyone else that nets the lake.

Again a little background story. We are allowed to commerical net our lake for Whitefish one weekend per year. In order to do so you have to live 10 miles away from a lake edge. You need to buy a memership and a license, both of which cost $10 each. A license allows you to put in 2 nets. Our nets are 100 yards by 8 feet high. Weights are put at both ends, small weights on the bottom of the net and there are floats at the top so the net pretty much stays on the bottom. The boundry is about 1km from shore and 5km long and you can setup a net anywhere in that area. Everyone does it in crews of family and friends since it takes a lot of man power to do this. Our crew is one of the oldest running out there and we are respected enough to keep getting the same spot year after year. We fish right along the south boundry. All nets must run west to east. So its a nice spot and we usually do really well. I have not been home to do this since 1998 and it was quite the treat and a new outlook on it made me really appreciate the tradition once again.

We start at Friday 9:00 am (fishing times are only from 9-5). Determin location of your first hole, cut with chain saw about 2x2' wide.



That's my dad in the sweet 1970's one piece John Deere skidoo suite LOL.



Pull ice block out with two scissor picks (ice about 15").




Then you have a guy go down 100 yards in the direction you want to go, use a rangefinder to get a close mark. Then you insert the jigger in the hole and point it towards you're guy.



The way the jigger works is that you have a rope attached to a cross piece on one end, you pull the rope and the hinged pick arm comes up, catches on ice and pulls the jigger forward. Release the rope tension and the jigger moves. You can hear the pick on the ice each time it hits. You have a guy following it and listening just in case you lose it for whatever reason. When you get to the 100 yard mark, cut another hole. Each hole then is marked with a stake and license details. We then pull the net through with the rope that was used. Keep sending the jigger down to the next hole. We put ours all in one line. We put in 6 nets.

Saturday morning at 9:00 am we return to pull nets.



Start pulling and taking out the fish. Bigger than normal but numbers are a bit lower than last year. We average roughly 110 fish per net. Ended up with 1350 total after second pull sunday morning. We were done pulling at about 2:30 each day.



This guy is helping me build my house.

[nicemustang]

Unfortunately we do get game fish in the nets. They have to be released if possible but if cannot then we have to turn them into the CO's. There are 6 CO's out and every vehicle off the lake is checked. They used to weigh all fish but don't anymore. We had 16 kept walleye and 2 pike day 1 and 3 of each day 2. Total game fish caught was 305 (record amount). They are put to good uses though. A school training program on how to fillet and identify, etc...plus donated to seniors, old folks homes and then to the foodbank if there are any left over.

Some pics at the CO's truck





Our biggest walleye we had to keep 62 cm.



And someone had a 16" perch abuot 1.67 lbs. Pic doesn't do it justice! I wanted it for a mount but they wouldn't let me!!! Arrgh.



Now to the "fun" part. Cleaning. We cleaned, filleted and skinned 550 fish on saturday. Man that does suck. We finished roughly at midnight. I was up another 1.5 hrs deboning and packaging mine (i don't leave any bones in).









Electric knives are a must.

[nicemustang]

Final results are approx: 14,367 kg caught, average 93 per net, 1.927 kg average size, 305 game fish (pike/walleye)

550 were cleaned. Spread out between the group. 150 donated to the annual fish smoker weekend on Jan 14th.

[npauls]

There looks to be some pretty good sized eyes in the game fish pile.

[flyguyd]

Cool pics . Looks like a rush, only downside would be the cleaning...lol

[Bushmaster]

Thanks for the pics and the story....never actually seen it done.

[jacenbeers]

That is prety cool Mustang. Thanks for the pics and explanation.

[WayneChristie]

Originally Posted by Bushmaster

Thanks for the pics and the story....never actually seen it done.

X2 I actually found one of those scissor picks in the Bow river just above the Bassano dam years ago,figured it was for hauling ice before they invented electric fridges.

[Rockymtnx]

Some good sized fish there NM.
Thanks for sharing the pics with us. I dont think many realize the whole process of net fishing.

[MoFugger21]

Very cool mustang! Thanks for sharing! Sounds like a very involved, but fun filled weekend!

[HunterDave]

Great thread Mustang!!! Thanks for posting. The whole process is pretty amazing.

[Geezle]

Originally Posted by HunterDave

Great thread Mustang!!! Thanks for posting. The whole process is pretty amazing.

I concur!

[cujo1969]

I like do that again had a small license for mcgregor but the cost got to high so give it up. We didnt get anywhere near 100 in a net maybe 20 lol.

[howlin]

did net fishing back in the early 90s ,400 pounds per net was a good net(bad night ,had to clean them)we usually had a string of 12 .altho whitys were the target we rarely got any wallys or pike in our nets ,mabye 3 of each in a string.good times tho,brooks was a second home(hello zoo)

[Rumtan]

I really appreciate the thread, Thank you Mustang ! I have learned how its done and seen the time and care it takes to make a successful netting trip work. You have educated some of us who only hear about it and dont have a clue whats involved. Thanks again for enlightening me..

[lone wolf]

Thanks NM, for a very interesting an enlightening thread. I had no idea of the time and manpower involved to make it successful........... can't imagine filleting all those fish !!! However I had often wondered how nets are strung under the ice, and now I know . Thanks for the detailed description and photos. It is quite an operation and very well handled. We have heard some very negative comments posted on here regarding net (commercial) fishing, so this post was a very refreshing change.

[bisonhunter]

I must say I like the looks of that Jigger. Do those fins make it track pretty straight? Mine's a little bit of wanderer at times.
I have a class b commercial licence on Great Slave Lake and run nets all winter. Must be nice working with 15" of ice, last winter with little snowfall we were dealing with nearly 5 feet.
Thanks for the post I Just love pulling the net, it get's into the blood real quick.

[nicemustang]

Originally Posted by bisonhunter

I must say I like the looks of that Jigger. Do those fins make it track pretty straight? Mine's a little bit of wanderer at times.
I have a class b commercial licence on Great Slave Lake and run nets all winter. Must be nice working with 15" of ice, last winter with little snowfall we were dealing with nearly 5 feet.
Thanks for the post I Just love pulling the net, it get's into the blood real quick.

Straight as an arrow. I'm not sure I've seen many other designs...everyone uses one like this out here.


Another note: The KG I reported on here and my other thread last week was incorrect. Those we the actual number of fish caught (my mistake) then that should be multiplied by the average weight to get the total KG.

[gunslinger]

That is very very neat for sure, awsome discription and pictures

[Kim473]

Thanks for the information Mustang! Nicely explained.

I still dislike netting tho. JMO.

[nicemustang]

There was a stint in the early 90s where they didn't net the lake. The whitefish became to be too numerous and many died with thousands of floating fish in spring and late summer. They were also stunted as well. Since the netting re-introduced, the fishing has never been better and fish never bigger. So think what you want, i'm just giving the facts here.

[WayneChristie]

Thinking a person could have a lot of fun with one of those jiggers out on PCR when its crowded, could be a whole lotta flags going off!

[CeeZee]

Excellent post here! Very interesting and sure learned how its done, congrats on a good traditional weekend.
Thanks again!

[Teamprotz]

Looks like fun , and some good eyes too. Ice doesn' t look great though !

[walking buffalo]

Great report Mustang.

Be sure to follow up with pics of the Smokin' Weekend.

[dryflyguy]

Thanks for posting, I'd gone out with my Grandfather to pull nets at Pigeon a couple times years ago. Brought back some good memories.

[Saltmania]

Very interesting.
Thanks for posting.

[marty1]

butchers