Saw som guys fishing with what looked like a fine net on the end of their lines. A bait ball attracts the fish and then they get their fins entangled in the net. 

Anyone able to enlighten me as to exactly how this works as I didn't get too close a look at what they were doing.

 

I have thousands of small tilapia in one of our dams and would love an easy/ fun way of catching them. At present I use a cast net but the really small ones escape through the mesh.

What you describe is exactly how the rig works - the fish are attracted to the bait ball and the fine mesh net entangles them (sometimes several fish at once).  My brother in law uses them when the fish are not feeding on the bait balls well.  The rig is cast out using standard rod and line tactics and the propped up rod bounces like a normal bite when a fish entangles itself.  These rigs are available in most fishing tackle shops - around here in Chaiyaphum anyway. 

 

Any pictures , sounds interesting on a slow fishing day :)

 

what do they cost ?

 

and a Thai name for them ?

 

Thanks

Well I bought a few of them today, 20 baht each. They only had sizes 6,7,8 and 9, whatever that means, so got one of each. I presume a float, then a few inches of line to the bait ball and all is go. Will give them a go when I get up to the farm in a few weeks time. You never know when you will learn a new trick!!

Those are the ones but I have only ever seen them fished ledger style on the lake bed rather than using a float. If you try them fished under a float let us know how you get on!

I've only ever once seen anything like that for rod and reel. It was in Puerto Escondido, Mexico. We were trolling with Capt Eve (pronounced Eh Bee, like in Cheh Bee) in his panga boat, the sailfish were hitting but not with bad intentions and we couldn't hook one. Eve dug to the bottom of his very large tackle box and pulled out a strange lure, a 1 1/4" welded metal ring with about 30 strands of 1/8" white twisted nylon cord. The strands were doubled through the ring and fastened together with a metal crimp just below the ring. The whole thing was about 18'' long. The ring was attached to a swivel snap and trolled like any other lure. The cord untwisted and fanned out in a triangle. 

Like most bill fish a sail will whack a bait with it's bill to stun it and then eat it. One whack on the nylon threads and it's bill is hopelessly entangled. The downside (other than the next paragraph) is that the fish is caught at the end of it's bill and has almost no leverage, too easy to reel in. We caught two in short order before heading in for the day.

I asked Eve why he didn't use them all the time, "Oh no, very illegal. Don't tell anyone". "Hmmm, now you tell us. That's why they were in the very bottom of the box" I thought. I don't like breaking the laws but what was done was done.