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Random Quote: You have to be smarter than the equipment you use.
I've been tossing an 8 footer for several years and I am pretty consistent at getting a good toss....say 85 - 90 percent of the time. i am 6'3" and I suspect that might help...particularly when the bait is far away....say at the end of the nets line.
Most of the time I am tossing in relatively shallow water at small menhaden, gudgeons and mullet. The net performs just as well as my toss....if it's a good one. I do not hold weights in my mouth, or drape it over my shoulder. I use an overhand frisbee type toss.
If the bait is there...I can load up in no time.
My problem is in catching large menhaden in deep water. My guess is that my net mesh is of the wrong size (too small) and not heavy enough. As it sinks, they simply get the hell out from underneath it. I haveg tried letting it sink a few seconds....and I have tried hauling it back right off the bat and everywhere in between.
Whats the drill for big fish in deep, open water? I can toss till my arms fall off and only pick a few up. New net? If so what size/weight do I need? I need big bait!
Well I net bunker every year. I use an 10' and a 12' (Both are setup for bunker). My 10 is setup to throw in water no deeper than 15' of water, and he 12 is setup for 25' of water. If your throwing that deep, you need A LOT of weight and a large mesh. No matter what, if your throwing in deep water (20'+), its really tough to fill the net.
You need to specific on
The Stretched mesh size
1.5 lbs of lead per foot,
Make sure it is THIN STRAND monofiliment, so that it will sink fast.
It also needs draw strings so that it closes before the leads leave the bottom.
I do not start hauling untill I feel them wiggling.
This sounds elementary and you probably knew all of this, but I just wanted to try to mention everything in one post to cover all bases that I know of.
Keep the net you have for the shallow water pods......as a matter of fact, if you can build some expertise in finding the pogies in shallow water you can altogether skip buying another net. In my local waters I have found the pogies love to run the shallows about 1 to 2 hours after the tide changes....and go for deeper water near the end of each tide change. It has something to do with them hiding from predators that await those oily bastards in the deep channels.
I plan on getting a second net for the open water guys too. The menhaden typically don't get here till a bit later in the summer, and when they do the small guys are the first to show. It's not uncommon to heave the net once and to have enough bait to fish for a week. Sometimes I actually open the net next to the boat and let half of them out, because they aren't needed and the net will weigh a ton coming over the side. These fish I am referring to are in the 1-3 inch range. I actually like having a smaller, lighter net for these fish because I can heave it far from the boat when necessary...or when they are in water too shallow for my boat.
When the big ones show up (by big I mean the ones big like your hand and up...8 inchers) it seems as though they seldom enter the creeks. They prefer to stay in the bay and are much more difficult to catch. Occasionally you can find them in fairly shallow water near the surf zone and you can flat out slay them under the right conditions. But it's more common to be running to the grounds and see the big black shadow. It's fairly easy to drive the boat right up to them, and with the right net perhaps I'll have better luck. I like to use the big ones for cobia, drum, amberjack and the occasional king.
I think that I copied a link off of this site for a supplier of big (heavy) nets. I'll start looking.
By the way, that's quite a shot of your wake. How fast will that mother go? I never get to see a wake like that off my transom!
Ok...now I understand your situation. For the really big honking pogies like the ones I have seen off of NC in late fall you may want to forget the net altogether. Make a rig of 2 weighted trebles (these trebles have added weight on the shank). You drop that rig into the mass on the ff and yank it up and snag the pogies. Seriously, those pogies are so big the treble doesn't mess them up ......... and I would not want to have 100 of them in my net anyway.
My wake.....we were cruising along at 50 mph in that shot.....top end is around 60 mph.
Cast netting..... 
