[riverraider]

No, not gill-nets...your landing nets.
Over time, especially if exposed to the sun, they can break down and the cord becomes weakened. Even if they look fine, tug on them.

After a great fight with a big Chinook (about 34-36 pounds) it went in the net.
as we raised it out of the water to bonk it, it disappeared...literally.
The fish thrashed and then poof, it was gone and a big hole was all that was left in the net.
(yes it really was that big. It was notably bigger than the one in the box that the scale said was #31.)
I should have cried, but all I could do was laugh thinking about the fish story and what this fish was telling his buddies.

 

[Icelander]

Hi Riverraider,
Funny you should post this message just now. I went out with my neighbor in his boat Friday and the same thing happened to me. His net looked just fine when he put it into the boat but when he neted my 20 or so lb nook and tried to raise it out of the water, IT JUST DISSAPERED. We were lucky enough to find a store near by to get a new net and were back on the water within half an hour and came home with two nice fish.
Later Lyle