1) A net attached to a pole, used to catch fish.
In 1372, at a manorial court in Eastoft, the tenants of Crowle claimed an ancient fishing right: quod ... antiquitus usi fuerunt et adhuc uti debent piscari in comuni aqua totis temporibus anni cum polnettes, Selby. In the debate about the tenants’ rights it is made clear that fishing might take place, but only at certain times of the day and year and then with nets of a defined mesh size, that is allowing the passage of a man’s two fingers up to the second joint: licete piscari possunt cum retibus vocatis polnettes quć erunt in mascis amplitudinis ut duo digiti hominis ingredi poterit usque secundam juncturam .