Bo, I use a net. I put some velcro on the handle, (wrap it around the butt) and I placed chunck of the fuzzy material on the back of my vest. By grabbing the end of the net you can very easily flip the handle onto the velcro and keep it there. I also use a line that a got in a casino for your check in card and I attach one end to the net handle and the snap end to the loop at the top and back of my vest. That way I merely reach bck grab the handle snap it off the velcro and when I don't want to hold it I drop it as it can't go anywhere. It works pretty good. Rene
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 5:54 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Tail First I was wade fishing in the lower canyon of the Yakima a couple days ago and hooked what I thought was a very large trout or possibly a whitefish. From the way it pulled I thought it might be 18" or 20". When it surfaced it came up tail first. I was using a nymph with a #18 dropper. As it turned out several minutes later, when I finally worked the fish in close enough to remove the hook, the tiny PT dropper had snagged the fatty adipose fin. The chunky bow turned out to be a respectable 14" or 15", but not the lunker I'd at first thought. As I clumsily released the fish, it returned the favor. The PT dropper snapped up and became embedded in the crease of my thumb. All these years, I've never used a trout net. Usually, I have no trouble flicking the hook loose, but there are those other times when I'm standing in knee-deep water, trying to take a very tiny hook out of a large, flopping trout when I really wish that I had a landing net. Is a net an indispensable item for most o! f you, or just another fishing gadget that weighs you down and gets tangled in the streamside brush? Bob Martin
