Inland Fisheries

8.2.2.3 Grappling and wounding gears

Certain instruments are used to grapple and wound the fish prior to their capture. These instruments can be hand instruments or sharp projectiles.

Hand instruments

These are broadly classified into clamps, tongs and rakes.

1. Clamp is a stick with one end split into a few branches. Clamps are mainly used to catch mussels and snails.
2. Tongs are similar to scissors with long handles and are used to operate slightly deeper than the clamps.
3. Rakes are used to catch mussels and they rake and dig animals hidden in the mud.

Sharp projectiles

Instruments with sharp points are used, thereby catching the fish in a damaged or injured condition.

1. Spears are simplest form of sharp projectiles and they range from single pronged stick to many pronged barbed ones.
2. Fish plummets: Metal weights with barbed points called fish plummets pierce the flatfish over the bottom as they are dropped down.
3. Fish combs provided with prongs which pierce the fish when pressed into the mud are mainly used in eel fishery.