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Camo Mesh/Netting

Julian Peacock

Julian Peacock

Senior Member
Hi All,

Has anybody successfully used a camouflaged mesh or netting for fishing purposes recently and what type did you use/buy? I was thinking that i might try it (or go and visit the shrink), as i am keen at trying to prevent my presence being known. Nothing illegal i might add.

Cheers,

Jules
 
Thanks for the link Ash. That is a bit more than i was looking for TBH. I think the mesh route would help to enable a recast/rebait without the dreaded skylining of everything. Maybe i am taking it a bit too serious for my first season after whiskery wonders!
 
They will know your persence far more from noise, footfall, vibration than they ever will from sight, just stay below the skyline........
 
Hi Jules,

I have some small bits left in the garage somewhere, from under the rod top carping days. You can get the stuff from any army surplus site online, although some of it is surprisingly expensive...shop around with google, see what you can find.

Cheers, Dave.
 
With Dave on this re the Army surplus. I fish in some open spots & in having various keys can take my car proximate to swims. Problem is it would stand out literally a mile on some of the banks & when the coffers allow I will be adorning my car with said garment. For me, being unobtrusive is the way forward.

Cheers, Jon
 
Just got to ask - Why?

Does a black net really make a difference?
 
Julian Peacock said:
Hi All,

Has anybody successfully used a camouflaged mesh or netting for fishing purposes recently and what type did you use/buy? I was thinking that i might try it (or go and visit the shrink), as i am keen at trying to prevent my presence being known. Nothing illegal i might add.

Cheers,

Jules
Click to expand...

I really don't think that netting will help from the fish spooking, keeping bankside disturbance to a minimum and keeping below the skyline will. But if using camou netting makes you feel more confident then fair enough.
 
Ian Crook said:
They will know your persence far more from noise, footfall, vibration than they ever will from sight, just stay below the skyline........
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I totally agree Ian.
It is just sometimes almost impossible to stay below the skyline when casting or baiting though.
 
Lee Poultney said:
Just got to ask - Why?

Does a black net really make a difference?
Click to expand...


Why? Because it might make enough difference on a pressured stretch when sometimes the fish can see you.

I think you are having a laugh with the black net bit?:) Im not allowed out alone at night so a black net will not help my fishing....:)
 
I remember seeing a slide recently at Mike Wilson's talk for the Thames Anglers Conservancy in Hampton. It showed one of Mikes swims, back in the seventies or early eighties ?, when he was fishing for carp on a famous lake. In the foreground he had arranged a screen made from some old sacking so he didn't spook the fish in the margins as he moved around.

Can see how in certain situations / swims it would advantageous to screen yourself from being visable to the fish but a quiet / stealthy approach is equally as important if you know the fish aren't far from the bank.

D.
 
Know, I know the next relates to carp, rather than barbel...but as the question has been asked, I will explain why I used a net screen in the past :D

If you are sat in a bivvy, which the features of the surroundings dictate is only three or four feet from your bait in the margins, in a lake with wary old carp that KNOW when a sparrow farts....then your ideas of what is or is not worth trying undergo a sudden change. I quite agree that fish are quickly alarmed by clumsy footfalls, bankside noise etc, etc....but once you have eliminated all that obvious stuff, and the fish are still spooky...what do you try then?

You sit there, knowing the fish can very likely see you...in fact the bow waves heading up the lake if you make any sudden movement prove the point...so you end up too paranoid to move...to pick up your cuppa, scratch yer bum...anything! THEN you appreciate the value of a small barrier of camou netting between you and the fish :D You still have to be ultra carefull...but at least you can blink :p

I doubt your average barbel are this wary...but who knows? Results from under the rod tip stuff might very well improve if more precautions were taken.

Would it matter if this screen were black instead of camou? I guess that depends on how many black bushes and trees you have on the banks of your water...fish are NOT as stupid as many think :D

Cheers, Dave.
 
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Duncan Dimbleby said:
I remember seeing a slide recently at Mike Wilson's talk for the Thames Anglers Conservancy in Hampton. It showed one of Mikes swims, back in the seventies or early eighties ?, when he was fishing for carp on a famous lake. In the foreground he had arranged a screen made from some old sacking so he didn't spook the fish in the margins as he moved around.

Can see how in certain situations / swims it would advantageous to screen yourself from being visable to the fish but a quiet / stealthy approach is equally as important if you know the fish aren't far from the bank.

D.
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Did the very same five years ago (an old ex-army tarpaulin sliced into three then strung up) after barbel in what had been a very nice swim until a few of the rampaging herd found it and in the space of a fortnight not only levelled all bankside rushes, grass, nettles etc but also had most of an adjacent willow down. I caught the fish I knew to live there (which they didn't ... one passer-by had merely seen a bloke using a pin in what was at the time a jungle ... so there must be barbel...) and have never been back, not even to walk past it.
 
Paul Boote said:
Did the very same five years ago (an old ex-army tarpaulin sliced into three then strung up) after barbel in what had been a very nice swim until a few of the rampaging herd found it and in the space of a fortnight not only levelled all bankside rushes, grass, nettles etc but also had most of an adjacent willow down. I caught the fish I knew to live there (which they didn't ... one passer-by had merely seen a bloke using a pin in what was at the time a jungle ... so there must be barbel...) and have never been back, not even to walk past it.
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That is exactly the kind of thing that i have had to endure this last summer. Sometimes it would pay to be as invisible to Joe as to the fish. All it takes is a capture at a bad time or a picture in a weekly and good bye barbel.

I get the feeling that say, on a narrow stretch of river, a fish on the far bank would see me a lot easier than a fish on the near bank/mid river so i do believe that a bit of netting would make a difference.
 
Used to use ex army scrim netting when fishing margin swims on a large crystal clear gravel pit. I got mine by taking a mooch about on my local piece of military land, you`ll find allsorts left behind by the squaddies on manoeuvres. Have found unused ration packs, petzl head torches, bungees, huge betalites and more. It`s almost as much fun as fishing.

Mic
 
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