Anyone have any suggestions or info on the best way to handle fish is with a net or cradle? I currently use a large muskie net for handling fish, i was thinking of trying a crade instead. My thoughts is that it may be better for the fish. Anyone have any thoughts or experiences they can share.
if you want to catch a hook in your face go cradle 
I often find myself fishing alone…… which is always risky with muskie/pike anyway…….. so a net is the only way for me.
It’s been my experience that my net is still too small though. I’ve seen these “Big Kahuna” nets from Frabill being used in a few of the video/dvd productions and they look like they give even the 50+ fish a lot of room to be in the net without being wrapped up in it. I’d like to try one and see how well it does or doesn’t go.
I’ve always thought that the cradle looked like a good way to go but you have to have a buddy along to use them. Fishing mid week makes that tough for me so I’ve stayed away from them.
AND……… being in sporting goods retail, I can monitor what fishermen really think of a product by how many guys and/or gals are out there buying it. So far, it’s been my observation that the cradles are proving to be slow movers. Off the top of my head, the best I can guesstimate is that our musky nets sell at about a 9:1 ratio over the cradles.
for smaller fish i just hand land, 40 inches an under, or just unhook them at boatside. bigger fish use a net and un hook them in it in the water, then pull it out for a quick pic. 
me and my dad always use a net.its the easiest way to land a muskie or big northern. we use a beckman net, frabills work too tho.
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if you want to catch a hook in your face go cradle
ahhhhh!!! that is just too funny. But I’d have to agree with catch. Cradles are just too sketchy. I use the origional Beckman net and it is absolutely sweet, but they also make a finsaver model so they don’t get so chewed up. just an idea
If yer always fishin’ by yourself and having multitudes of multiple trophy size fish a day a cradle would make no sense. I have a Frabill Big Cahuna and it’s basically a livewell that will support a monster fish. Leave ’em in the net for the unhooking process…..snap an ultra quick photo..(Note: Snap a quick photo)and off they go! Never had a problem whatsoever. Never even had a fish that didn’t take of like a bat out of a Meatloaf song as soon as they hit the water.
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