Dip Net

• Maneuver landing or dip nets beneath a fish too heavy to land by hook and line alone. In a few fisheries using dip nets for game fish may be legal in special circumstances. Native American fishermen legally entitled to a portion of the salmon run in the Northwest may use dip nets as part of their traditional fishing gear. Smelt may also be taken with a dip net if the fishermen buys the proper license.
  
  

Cast Net

• Spin a cast net as it's thrown and the outer weighted ring expands the circular net, dropping over the school targeted. When the ring sinks, a line pulls the ring shut below the fish and hauls in the catch. In most sport fisheries of the U.S., cast nets may only be used to catch bait fish like minnows or shad. In skilled hands the cast net works smoothly but inexperience transforms one into an instant puzzle. Practice in the back yard with a small net before depending on one for bait.
  
  

Seine

• Seine nets make obvious sense and require little skill. Deploying the seine like the net on a tennis court---with one person working at each end---haul the net through shallow water to shore. Everything in the seine's path becomes caught. Though the seine quickly provides all the bait a fisherman needs, the fry must be sorted. Regulations require gamefish and their fry to be released.
  
  

Hoop

• Hoop nets trap fish in a tubular network of mesh funnel entryways and cylindrical holding areas. Fish attracted to bait placed in the net enter the funnels but don't find their way out. Periodically fishermen raise the net traps to remove the catch. Any lost trap keeps working, trapping and starving whatever fish enters. Small traps may be legal for bait catching but large hoop nets require commercial fishing permits.
  
  

Gill

• Commercial gill nets placed across waterways trap migrating fish struggling to force their way through. Once a fish's head passes through the net, gill covers hook the strands and prevent escape. Smaller fish pass through unharmed. Drift nets used by commercial fishing boats on the open ocean use a gill net design. Lost nets---called ghost nets---form a hazard to both shipping and fish populations, continuing to trap fish until hauled from the water.
  
  

Purse

• Purse seines deploy around a school of fish. Floats keep the top of the net at the surface as the boat circles to close the gap. Raising the net draws the purse seine shut, trapping the school of fish inside. Purse seiners catch many types of fish that school near the surface, including sardines, mackerel and salmon while still offshore.
  
  

Trawl

• Trawling nets seine deep layers of ocean, set to work at specific depths or even scrape the bottom. An upper edge of floats and a lower weighted edge keep the trawl at depth while towed below the boat. Set to work the sea floor, trawls catch shellfish as well as bottom-feeding fish.