One of my favorite nets i bought when i was a kid is a 5’ x 5’ fold-up baitfish net. It has a cheesecloth like netting. You drop it into waters 5’ and under, and wait for the small fish to swim over. It comes up like the mouth of a whale when you pull hard, and invariably will catch something.
The darned thing is near 40 years old and still works great.
