First time with a cast net

Went down to Little elm park today on Lewisville with the cast net for the first time. I'm still terrible at it. I spent about 2 hours out there and caught maybe 20 shad around the ramp (better than nothing.) Also caught this guy. Not a bad day overall lol hopefully this wind will die down soon and I can get out on the kayak for some cats soon.

When the wind dies down, paddle across to the little island off the point. Usually holds fish in the spring

The one straight out from the ramp behind me in the picture?

👍. I actually marked cats under and around that dock yesterday. We anchored on the 2 points on the West Bank just north of that ramp yesterday morning and did alright in 1-2 ft. We caught 20 eaters right in someone’s backyard. After lunch we went and drifted in 30 ft and caught 30 more dinks. My 4 yr old went bonkers. He’s starting to throw his cast net better too!

4 yr old throwing pancakes

That’s awesome. Your kid throws better than me

That was awesome haha my 4 year old loves to fish, but I'm still working on keeping her from smacking me in the face with her rod while I'm baiting her hook lol

Practice makes perfect in many things... including net throwing.

I sucked BAD but after much practice; I still am a novice but I am not terrible lol

Haha I'll be back out soon and gonna try a different technique. I've decided to make it hard and start with an 8' net, but I'll figure it out eventually.

8ft is illegal, 7ft max

Am I missing something here?

14ft diameter is 7ft radius which nets are sold by, 8ft is 16ft diameter and illegal

Interesting. Thanks. I just assumed it was measured by diameter. (Wasn't paying close attention to how big it looked when throwing it.

Damn geometry. I guess I'll be buying a new one and taking the 8' on Arkansas trips.

Yeah that is a good call out by fmrmbmlm. Would hate for yall to get a ticket for an honest mistake. And IT is easier to learn with the smaller nets.

Had my my daughter out there last week trying to teach her to throw one . Throwing all tacos and I’m trying to show her so I do everything and then just drop it straight down just likes she’s doing trying to show her that’s wrong and prove a point ....I pull up a perch that got hung .... lmao I gave it back to her and said just keep going your doing great lol

It’s a beach to learn and painful to try to teach someone else

Shore fisherman get checked by the game warden on a regular basis. I saw the Game Warden at Little Elm ramp ramp Thursday checking fisherman on shore. Never been checked for net size while in the boat but rarely get stopped on my lake and never been stopped while throwing the net . Only boat checks we usually get are for safety inspections and they usually don’t mess with us fisherman on Lewisville. I been checked pretty hard up at Texoma and also up in Denton Creek on Grapevine but they were looking for no license and undersized fish. I did get my boat checked for zebra muscles by a K-9 unit 2 yrs ago at Tower Bay ramp on Lewisville. No joke! Had dogs sniffing all the boats putting in and trailering looking for zebra muscles.

Never heard of a k-9 sniffing for muscles. That's crazy

I was really having trouble with my 5 footer, hadn't tossed it in a long time and just forgot how. I found a Youtube video that was similar to the way I was trying to throw it except he picked up the hem 3 times instead of 2 and that made all the difference. Today just before the cold front I went to Whisky Flats and lucked on a gold mine of 3 inch shad. I bagged 6 quarts half full and froze them. I really like fresh but if there is a day when I can't find them I'll have these.

Nice. I've since bought a 6 footer (I'm legal now) lol Tried practicing in the back yard and couldn't throw a pancake to save my life. Gonna try to soak the net a bit. It's pretty stiff and I think getting the mono to loosen up a bit will help get a better spread. I could get it in a circle, it just wasn't spreading out well. Taking some frozen shad out to little elm tomorrow. We'll see how it goes

Practice makes perfect. I don’t soak my nets. My shallow nets are stiff as a board and still pancake every time. My deep nets are much better quality and stay soft. Cast nets will open up a lot better if your strong hand grip on the net is around waist high. If your grip is too high you will have to sling it a lot harder. The net should touch the ground when you grab it at waist height. Hope this helps. There are many different techniques to throwing a Cast net so find one that your comfortable with and works best for you.

Worked on it some more this afternoon. Good grief it's frustrating haha I can't think of anything I've struggled with so much. Can't even tell if I'm getting better or not lol gonna maybe try some other techniques next time.

Let me know Bud and I will help you out next time...I should have showed you yesterday but I had fish on the brain ..LOL!!

Haha sounds good man. I'll be practicing more this week (hopefully at the lake).

Finally figured it out (mostly) lol found a technique that works for me on YouTube. Went out tonight and came back with some shad for the morning. Going to be a little elm park (lake Lewisville) bright and early.

Ha Nice Going Buddy...Hope you get on'um!!!!

Nice bait and job. Which technique did you end up using?

https://youtu.be/1kvubfKIHMc


Used this one. Practice a few times and had it down for the most part pretty quickly. It made a world of difference just finding the right technique for me.



Got 3 eaters today. Got them filleted and cooking them up with the family Friday. Gave the rest of the shad away at the ramp to some fellow fisherman. Hopefully they had some more luck. It was a beautiful day to be on the water.