Fishnet or Parachute Hammock?
Kevin Felts 03.22.18
Looking for a hammock to use for camping, but you want something that is lightweight, easy to put up and easy to take down?
For the sake of this discussion, let’s eliminate everything with a built in canopy and mosquito net. This excludes most of the jungle style hammocks such as Hennessy, and Grand Trunk.
This leaves us with fishnet and hammock style hammocks.
We want a hammock that is easy to set up, easy to take down, and is comfortable.
Fishnet Hammock
Just as the name implies, this hammock looks like a fishnet with a rope on each end. I started using a fishnet hammock sometime in the mid-1990s. A couple of my buddies and I were on a camping trip near a marsh when one of them pulled a hammock out and strung it up.
Really? A hammock? I liked it so much I went to the Academy Sports and Outdoors in Beaumont, Texas and bought one. From the mid-1990s to around 2008 I used a fishnet hammock.
One thing I disliked about the fishnet is how it would leave marks in my skin. The next morning there would be a fishnet pattern pressed into my skin.The pattern would go away after a few hours. The strings pressing into the skin can be rather uncomfortable.
One thing I loved about the hammock was the weight and the easy set up and take down. Slipknots were used to attach the hammock to the trees.
In a survival situation, the fishnet could be used as a sane. The holes in my fishnet are small enough to stop anything larger than a perch.
Parachute Hammock
If someone is looking for comfort, parachute is the way to go. The parachute hammock may weigh a few ounces more than a fishnet, however, what you gain in weight you also gain in comfort.
Put up and take down is “maybe” a few seconds longer than the fishnet.
Just as the name implies, the hammock material resembles a that of a parachute. This is the epitome of comfort and relaxation.
Mosquitoes
Think either hammock will protect the camper from mosquitoes? Think again. While the fishnet offers absolutely no protection from biting bugs, the parachute offers almost no protection. Mosquitoes will penetrate the parachute material as if their needles were a hot knife and the parachute material were warm butter.
Depending upon location, the camper will need a sleeping pad to protect themselves from blood sucking mosquitoes.
While camping near a marsh in the 1990s, the fishnet hammock was nothing more than something to relax in as my buddies and I slept in a tent.
Final Thoughts
A lot of the final decision has to do with comfort, weight and biting bugs.
There have been places where I was not bothered by a single mosquito all night long. Then there were places where it felt like a persons soul was being sucked out, one drop at a time.
After using both for numerous years, I definitely prefer the parachute hammock.
