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What is a Trawl?

A trawl has many different meanings depending on what type of fishing you are talking about.

To trawlers or draggermen, men who fish from commercial vessels that tow nets, a trawl is a great net which they drag along the bottom to capture fish; they call it a trawl net, and the act of using it is called trawling or dragging.
otter trawl
In the parlance of lobster fishermen, a trawl is a string of joined lobster pots, buoyed only at each end.

A trawl line or longline (around here called “tub trawl”) is a buoyed line that has many short lines (gangions) with baited hooks attached to them usually at one fathom (or 6 foot) intervals.

A simple variation of this is the single line which a man, fishing from his boat or canoe, permits to drag in the water as he rows or paddles. This action is called “trolling,” another form of trawling.

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