US NETMAKER Greg Faulkner of Innovative Net Systems based at Milton, Louisiana, has been Nitto Seimo's US representative for many years and has been using knotless netting for a variety of functions.

"We've used Nitto's knotless netting for shrimp bottom trawls, for fish pens and bird barrier netting.

Turned square, with no knot to slide, you can pull the netting as hard as you want."

Nitto Seimo makes its knotless netting from a variety of materials, nylon, vinylon, PE, polyester and other materials.

"They are now going for a Dyneema version and they also make UC netting, which is a polyester knotless netting with copper threads through it that kills cold water algae, so it's great for fish cages."

"You can do anything with knotless netting that you can do with knotted, but it has to be treated right, " Greg Faulkner tells me, adding that Nitto's knotless netting 'just glides'when used in mid-water gear.

Several years ago his company carried out a series of comparisons on behalf of the Louisiana Department of Public Resources to test different types of netting in fishing gears.

"There was no comparison. The Nitto knotless netting beat everything and, in some cases, it was as much as 40% ahead of other kinds of netting. Towing speed is higher, door spread is better, the water flow through it is so much better - and it doesn't hold bycatch as much as traditional knotted netting."

"Every net has a speed where it stalls when you tow hard enough but, with the Nitto netting, you can push it very hard. On trials we had shrimp trawls being towed at six knots, which is ridiculous for fishing gear that normally tows at three knots maximum.We were even catching some mackerel and mullet, fish that are normally caught in purse seines.

"The downside of knotless netting is that Nitto make it only in 100 mesh deep sections, so you have to join sections. This is the part that fishermen don't like about knotless - the repairs take longer and you have to be careful to double knot everything.

"When you're joining sections, it's best to lace them together, double up on the selvedges and the uglier it looks, the better, " he says.

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Knotless 'just glides' - says US netmaker