I moved to rubberised nets as, until taking up cane and 'pin a few years ago, most of my angling was with lures. The general consensus in the lure fishing community is that rubber nets, with slightly larger mesh, are much kinder to our predators, particularly bass. Obviously, they are also better for river and sea, causing less resistance. The problem I have had is sourcing replacement rubber nets, with Snowbee seemingly the only easy ones to purchase and those in 60 and 70 inch only.
Just seen the photo of your current net and, yes, that is tight! I'm wondering if the Snowbee 70 inch would be sufficient.
Should you find a source of smaller replacement rubber nets Reedling, I'd love to hear about it. I have several old landing net frames, including a 12 inch Japanned one, that I'd like to fit with rubberised nets.
Edit: I should have said, the other 2 advantages of the Snowbee nets is that they are flat bottomed and not as stupidly deep as some modern carp nets.