Most stream fishers own a landing net. Many, myself among them, have several. Trout nets, as a rule, range from ornate, hand crafted, wood-framed objects of art to relatively inexpensive, purely utilitarian devices.

My own arsenal consists of three beautiful laminated-wood creations, prized because I know the individuals who made them and seldom carried because of a reluctance to subject things so fine to the rigors of streamside use, plus one aluminum framed cheapie.

Trout nets have changed over the years. Handles are shorter, probably because anglers are less reluctant to step into the creek than they used to be and the nets are smaller because fish are also. Nylon mesh has eliminated the aroma that used to be standard. It doesn't absorb fish slime like cotton did.

Now some genius has come up with the idea of attaching a split ring to the bottom of each net bag. Originally, I suspect, as away of puckering the mesh together but also adding weight there that keeps the bag open in the water.

My tubular frame net is the one that gets the everyday, knock-about use. As far as I can see, metal frames have only one disadvantage and that is minor and readily rectified. Most have a shiny, fish alarming finish. A few shots from an aerosol can of dull flat green or brown paint corrects this.

Many stream anglers carry no net at all, figuring that so long as they are planning to release the catch anyway, there is no point to it. If they should hook one they wish to keep, it can always be beached.

For one thing, lifting a struggling fish from the water with line alone imbeds the hook deeper. For another, using a net means fish don't have to be played until exhausted before landing and if one must be handled, gripping through the mesh eliminates the need for excessive squeezing. I have come around to the idea that fish, net landed, are less apt to be mortally injured.

Traditionally, nets have been carried by an elastic noose attached to the handle butt and looped around the neck or by a snap clipped to a ring fastened somewhere on the fisher's apparel, usually high up in back between the shoulder blades.

Either system is an abomination. In order to be out of the way a net should hang either to the rear or side of the angler. At first glance it would seem the elastic noose is the most practical, that is, until the net catches on a tree limb or bush and hits you on the head or neck like a projectile from a sling-shot.

I was cured on the French-clip, between the shoulder blades system one chilly evening on Mt. Vernon Creek, when I went to the car after a wool mackinaw and tugged it over my fishing vest, net and all. (The vest wouldn't fit over the mackinaw.)

Shortly thereafter, a big brown took my fly and me downstream for two or three pools before subsiding enough so there seemed a chance of netting it.

Then came the realization; the net was in the middle of my back under that mackinaw. If you have never had to wriggle free of a wool mackinaw while trying to keep a monster trout from burying itself in a bed of watercress, you can’t really know what frustration is.

Sometime later, I got one arm free of a sleeve, netted the fish and looked around. There stood a middle-aged stranger, as out of breath and red-faced from exertion as I was. I looked across the pasture and saw a car stopped in the road.

Come to find out, he had been driving by, saw my frantic convolutions and, assuming I was having some kind of seizure, had stopped his car, climbed through the fence and ran across the field to try to help. Aren't there nice people in this world?

That ended the clip-on phase. For the next couple of seasons the net was carried tucked half in and half out of a canvas creel slung under my arm, readily available but kind of in the way.

Then I had a brainstorm (I have a lot of them, most don't amount to anything). I tied a loop of clothesline, just large enough to slide an arm and sleeve through easily, to the net where the handle joined the hoop. My wife sewed a button on the shoulder of my fishing vest, similar to that some shooters use to keep a gun sling from slipping, and I was in business.

I could put my arm through the loop, slide it up over the shoulder button and the net rode with the handle projecting slightly above and to the rear of my shoulder and the frame and bag under my arm.

I used it that way a couple of seasons, then modified it again.

It now has a slightly smaller loop of elastic cord. With this the gun-sling button is no longer needed. The elastic grips the fabric of shirt or jacket firmly but can still be easily slid down the arm when the net is needed.