SUPPLIES NEEDED

  • 12-20lb monofilament fishing line.
  • Scissors.
  • A place to hang the net stretched out full length.

 

   Start by stretching out your net so it is suspended and pulled fairly tightly between two sturdy objects and hanging so that the bottom just touches the ground. This will allow you to inspect the entire net at once and make the net easier to work on. I hang mine off a big nail on the side of the garage and stretch it across to my sons swingset, then tie it off there. Start at one end and slowly walk along the net inspecting it up and down as you go to find the small, easy to repair holes.

 

Small holes like the one shown above are pretty simple and straight forward to fix. Just replace the broken strands of netting by tying in new pieces of mono. Use whatever kind of knot you feel will be secure. Most of the time once you tie in the new line you can not tell there was even a hole there. 

On to the tougher repairs.... Keep in mind that once a gill net is badly torn a full repair will probably be impossible. Below is a best case scenario showing how to get some netting back in place. Worst case scenario would be you either just pull the two sides of a bad tear together, ignoring any missing or damaged mesh, and just let that section of net hang funny, or order a new net.

 

When you get a bad hole or tear like above you really have to study it for a few minutes to get your bearings and decide how best to proceed before starting.

 

 Have patience with it and start around the edges of the damage. A lot of it might be many small tears that can be easily fixed thereby reducing the amount of large hole to repair. Remember, it won't be perfect like it looks in the diagrams, but it will be closed up and will probably still catch bait. Just like most things it takes a little practice to make a decent repair. I normally stretch my net up every third or fourth trip and do maintenance repairs so that I don't have to deal with a lot of holes at once. If I get a big, obvious tear while setting or bringing it in, I'll go ahead and make repairs when I get home.