In the past I have only ever used long nets during the night, only on rare occasions would I set one around a rabbit burrow, I would rather go belly down and struggle under hawthorn to set purse nets and many times I’ve covered 60 + holes. My long nets are all hand made with 2 1/4 inch mesh, at this size the rabbits head goes through making it easier to dispatch while still in the net, the larger mesh also allows baby rabbits pass through.

This year after being asked to do a bit of ferreting in Leeds I went along accompanied by my wife Jackie, we found the only way to do a couple of the burrows, due to the fact you could not get under the sprawling Hollytree’s was to set a longnet around them.

Even though it was April and we had been having lots of rain the ground was bone dry. Thankfully I brought with me some new graphite pegs to try, which I had recently made from golf clubs, the Blackthorn I would normally use would not penetrate the surface. As we set the longnet there were rabbits darting about from burrows in the hedge bottom back to the Hollytree’s I decided to work 3 jills around the trees and hedgerow, very quickly there were rabbits bolting from all directions; the ferrets were constantly back and forth investigating each burrow till eventually there were no rabbits left to bolt. We took 12 rabbits from these 2 burrows and the very young ones, which were unfortunate to become trapped in the net, were released for next season.

My wife Jackie is now hooked on using long nets and I have had to pre-set two fifty-yard and one 100-yard, and also purchase a basket for ease of use.