In 2025, ABT will be introducing maximum mesh sizes for BREAM/BASS (15mm) and BARRA (30mm) nets.

For 25 years, ABT has created and modified a set of rules that aims to level the playing field, but also to prioritise fish care. We are a 100% catch-and-release organisation and it’s in everyone’s best interest to use equipment and strategies that get as close as possible to 100% post-release survival.

Minimum-sized livewells, the use of lures-only and avoiding the warmest water of the year in BASS events are a few of the examples of measures we have taken to help reach this goal.

You may notice that it’s been years since we’ve published an image of a bass or barra swinging from its jaw. It’s best-practice and we like to back up our rhetoric with action.

As we collective, we want to keep improving these outcomes.

The first time we put rules in about nets was in 2005 when we started the BARRA Tour. There was some science done in the Northern Territory showing the the old-style knotted nets were demonstrably worse for fish survival than a fine mesh net like an Environet.

As a result, knotted nets have always been disallowed in BARRA events.

Early in the ABT BREAM days, we worked with Dr Ben Diggles, examining which livewells were actually the best for fish. A side discussion to these measurements was about fin splitting in fish.

Ben said that one of the causes of post-release mortality of fish was when their fins were split down to the base. It can provide a point of infection that can reduce the medium-term survival of the fish. They might swim away OK on the day, but not be as good in a week or a month’s time.

There’s a few ways fish can split fins. One is to interact with the fishing line during the fight. Another is interaction with other fish in the livewell. There’s not much we can do about these, although the latter isn’t a problem in App events.

The third way is when getting netted at the end of a fight. We can do something about this.

When we initially wrote the BARRA Rules, silicone/rubber nets weren’t on the scene. Anglers like them because they can quite easily swipe them through the water and potentially net a fish earlier.

The trouble is that when you get an early net shot on a fish, it’ll usually do most of its fighting in the boat and when a fish bounces around in a rubber net with a large mesh, it inevitably does itself fin and scale damage.

Of course, the gold standard in fish care nets is the Environet. Invented by ABT supporter and gun angler, the late Dave Irvine, his legacy has endured under Shimano’s umbrella. It’s been copied by other brands, but if the outcome is better fish care, then it’s probably a better outcome for the fish stocks.

When it comes down to it, it’s a balance between mesh size and usability. Some tournament anglers want to get an early net shot at any cost and they’re usually equipped with the rubber mesh nets.

In 2025, ABT will be introducing maximum mesh sizes for BREAM/BASS (15mm) and BARRA (30mm) nets.

Your current nets are all OK for this season, but this is a one year warning that the nets will have to be compliant at the start of the 2025 season. We will check them in the morning check-out process.

HOW DO YOU MEASURE MESH SIZE?

This is the obvious question that anglers will ask. What is a 15mm or 30mm mesh size net?

The way that you measure mesh size is by stretching a mesh to its longest reach. Then you measure the length from point to point. You don’t measure the net in the resting position.

Your next comment may well be that this means that your current rubber net is not going to be allowed in 2025.

This is correct. Larger mesh rubber nets are, in our opinion, the biggest controllable factor in fin splitting, so we don’t want them used in ABT events from 2025 onwards.

If you’re on a budget, it is possible to buy a replacement mesh for your current frame for a fraction of the cost of a new net.

BUT MY LURE GETS TANGLED!

It is true that if you choose a mesh style landing net and not an Environet, it may be harder for you to get the lure out if the mesh after you’ve landed the fish.

Steve Morgan is pretty blunt on this point.

“If it takes you an extra 20 or 30 seconds to untangle your lure from the net but it’s better for the fish, than that’s a sacrifice any ABT angler should be willing to make,” he says.

“As a collective, the more proactive we can be on fish care issues, the longer we will have the social licence to keep enjoying the sport that we all love,” he continued.

If you’re a devout ‘swiper’, you’ll still be able to do it – just with a finer mesh net.