I like using the upper dollar castnets, like from Bass Pro shops mainly because they will hold up well to abuse, about $35.00 each but I have draped them on trees and rocks and able to retrieve without tearing the mesh or breaking the Braille lines, the Walmart nets will tear in a heartbeat and you can never get them back if you drape the net on a rock or a big tree, the braille lines are made of real cheap stuff, I switched over to 1/2 inch mesh because they will drop a whole lot faster on suspended Shad, the 3/8" mesh will kind of float when it hits the water and the Shad will scoot right out from under it, plus I now put extra weights on them so they will drop faster.
I carry three different sizes of castnets, 5 footer I use in Ohio, 8 footer I use when I'm out of Ohio, which seems to be most of the time and then my big 10 footer, which opens to 20 foot, this one I use mainly if there are Shad on the Ohio river, one throw and enough bait for the trip, really I can't throw this net but more than a few times because it is so heavy, but it is so easy to throw because it is so big, this is the size of net that I learned to throw years ago, Kentucky allows up to 10 foot so ohiocatan is legal if he throws those oversize nets while on the Ohio river and carries a Kentucky license.
The Shad hatch has been awesome this year because of three months of no rain, we really needed to get the river replenished with bait has been years since I have seen pods of bait on the screen, now they are everywhere no matter where I go, small like 2-3 inch but they won't take long to grow big.
If we get the rain from Katrina on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and the river rises like 8 feet as they are predicting then the fishing this weekend will be awesome, the river needs a good flushing as that water is really dead, good flood will bring the oxygen levels back up and will really turn the fish on big time as the high water will force the bait into locations that will allow the big fish to put on the feed bag, hopefully I can get out there this weekend and catch some big ones, I like fishing on the river when the water is out of the banks.