There are several fishing gears and methods and each has different impacts on habitat, bycatch, and how overfishing happens. Different fish species reside in various zones of the water region like bottom-dwelling, mid-water, and surface and react in several ways. So, the gear utilized for fishing has to be especially suited and developed for particular target species.

A common challenge in the fishing industry

Various gear types could have different impacts according to their design, what they are grasping, and where they are utilized. Different species trapped by a similar gear model have chances for various sustainability concerns.

Solution

Fisheries should utilize fishing gear and methods that reduce unwanted effects on the marine ecosystem and target species. Certain gear models with bycatch problems can be rectified to reduce these effects by including escape zones in nets. The excluder devices permit unwanted species to escape. Another change could be done is utilizing traps with sunken lines instead of floating lines. It helps in the reduction of marine mammal entanglements. Certain gear models have a low impact and are very selective like diving and hook and line for nearshore species.

Know More About : List Of Important Fishing Equipment

Fishing gears and methods

Fishing gears are classified into five important categories. They are as follows.

Nets including dredges, trawls, gillnets, and seines

Nets are available in different shapes and sizes. Some nets are utilized passively in a fixed form- permitting fish as well as other animals to plunge into and some nets are utilized actively in mobile form- pulled through the water. Some of the common kinds of nets are cast nets, gillnets, purse seines, beach seines, dredges, and trawl nets.

• Gillnets are utilized by placing them in the water. Whenever the fish passes through the net, they will be caught. It means they get entangled by their grills. It is best to set gillnets in a line, stationery, drifting, or circle. It helps in catching around 25% of commercial salmon. It is the main gear type utilized for catching Manitoba Whitefish.
• Seine nets are bottom weighted nets. It will be placed in such a way adjoining a group of fish. This kind of net helps catch 50% of commercial salmon and is utilized to catch herring.
• Dredges consist of shovel-like iron edges and fine nets. They scratch the seabed to gather animals attached to or living at the sea bottom like the clams and scallops.
• Trawls consist of a net bag and frame where it is pulled from the boat to gather fish and various marine species. Mostly, trawls are pulled along ocean bottoms and they are also utilized in normal water to catch certain species. Trawls are mostly utilized for catching groundfish like hake, rockfish, and Atlantic cod and also shrimp.

Line and Hook

It is one of the popular fishing gears. Lines and hooks are available in different forms and consist of trolling lines, poles, hand lines, and longlines. The hooks are mostly baited.

Trolls, jigs, poles, and hand lines are all single hooks to a single fishing line. They are shorter than long lines. So, they remain in the water for a short time. Just like longlines, they can catch similar species.

Longlines consist of baited hooks. They are the most commonly used methods of hook fishing. Longlines are classified into two types. They are demersal or bottom longlining and pelagic or surface longlining. Demersal longlining focus species like cod, rockfish, and halibut. Pelagic longlining can catch tuna fish, various surface swimming fishes, and swordfish.

Grappling devices

These are important gears that are utilized to focus mammals or individual fish and they are handheld gears. Grappling devices consist of arrows, spears, and harpoons. It is mostly utilized to catch salmon and swordfish.
Traps

Traps are enclosed spaces utilized to capture invertebrates or fish. They are utilized passively and be baited to motivate the target fish to enter. Some of the examples of traps are fixed traps, bag nets, or stow and pots. Traps are utilized to catch sablefish, shrimp, and lobster.

Tips to select the right fishing gear

Selecting the right fishing gear is very important to make your fishing experience a successful one. When you use the wrong rod, it would not be possible to cast accurately or as far as possible. With the right rod, you can land exactly and it will work exactly the way you wanted. This way, you can produce more catches, bites and there will be more fun.

One of the main reasons to use the right rod is quick to bite detection. When you do not utilize the right stick, you could confuse collisions, hangups, and snags with a bite. It affects all the fun and excitement of fishing.

Some of the important things to consider are the length of the rod, material, handle, power, and action. Most anglers select by their personal preference instead of others’ advice.