My buddy bought a cradle this year because his Big Kahuna net is so hard to drag through the water if you are fishing in moderate or fast current. He has since reverted back to using the net. What he told me was that the cradle was great for releasing fish, especially if you need to hold them upright a bit, but it was very difficult for landing fish. I’m sure with practice it should get easier.
I think the best compromise in a net is the Beckman 31x36 size. The net bag is 52” deep and you can drop fish back into the net tail first and then flop the head in at the end. I’ve used it on fish up to 72” while fishing solo. The net doesn’t have that much drag in the water that you can easily scoop it upstream. It’s really hard to do that with the bigger nets. Mine has a 6’ one piece handle, but here’s a telescopic one for less than $100
https://www.amazon.com/Beckman-Net-...hild=1&keywords=bn3136s&qid=1603816607&sr=8-2
They do make one size bigger hoop with an even deeper bag.
One thing that makes the Beckman nice that you can’t do with a big Ranger is easily pull the hoop off the handle. When you depress the locking pin, the hoop will slide right off the handle. To do this with a Ranger, you have to pull off the plastic end cap. For bigger fish, after netting, I unhook them over the side of the boat still in the net, then pull off the handle, and haul just the hoop with the fish over the side of the boat. Not having the handle in the way gives you a lot more space to work with the fish.