How To Cast Net Shrimp and Small Bait for Fishing

I was exploring the creeks in the marshes around St. Helena Islands in a good-sized jonboat, as you may have heard by now, while my friend and owner of Busbee's Truck Parts, the best little place to find used Isuzu diesel engines and various mid-size flat nose trucks and stuff, was coaching our girls how to cast net for bait.

A video is at the end of this post.  It's noisy, but you might be able to hear Doug's instructions.

Basic Instructions:

Hold the net by the horn.  Shake the net and untangle it, take the edge and get the tucks out.  Put one weight in your mouth and loop part of the net back over your right elbow.

Lead it with your left hand......
  When you feel it tug on you, let it go with the right hand. Your legs ought to be even.

Marj demonstrates it here:

Brielle demonstrates it here:

You gotta open it up to get some fish.  Doug yelled this a few times as the girls threw the net has hard as they could.  Their arms got pretty sore by the end of the day.  Those nets are heavy!

You have to shoot it out a little ahead of where you see activity or it's too late.  It's kind of like shooting birds.  The girls did a good job.....

....Until the net got caught on Doug's button.  Note to self:  don't wear button shirts or jewelry when doing this.

We caught this cute and adorable little spotted trout.  He was too big for bait and too little to eat, so he went back in the water, much to his relief.

Warning:  If you get some hot jelly in your net (below photo), avoid it at all costs. If you touch it, it'll feel like you got in a bed of fire ants.  It burns bad.

Warning:  Watch out for the dorsal fins of these little guys (below).  One time Doug got two of these stuck in his finger.  Two weeks later his finger was swollen and infected.  The local dentist dug them out for him.  His finger is still scarred and numb, years later.

B caught some good sized mullet a few times.  We loaded them in the cooler.  The noise in the cooler made me sad.  I didn't like that part of the trip.  In Alaska?  To avoid the agony of the prolonged death?  They smash the fish's heads in with a club.  Personally?  That sounds as agonizing as a slow death in a cooler.  BTW, what's the common denominator with me, Alaska and the SC Coast other than dead fish?  Doug.  He was with me with the dip netters in AK, too.

Marj got a handful of bait fish and some shrimp.  The girls were getting tired, the tide was coming in and hiding the oyster beds.  So B squirt a li'l more wd-40 on the motor and we headed in.

Enjoy the video below, I apologize for the noise.  I thought anyone interested in the sport might want to hear Doug giving the instructions.   I have one more post coming on our trip to Beaufort.  Come back tomorrow or the next day to find out how we did with the crab traps.  I'll give you a hint:  it involves roadkill. (not entirely uncommon when you're with Doug)