Materials are presented on the comparative effectiveness of fishing gear used to catch the Pacific sardine and mackerel in the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean. It has been shown that the efficiency of catch of Pacific sardine by the pair trawl is 3.5–4.8 times higher than fishing by pelagic trawls. When catch mackerel, the picture is the opposite: pair trawl fishing efficiency is 3.0–8.9 times lower than fishing indices with pelagic trawls. This state of affairs indicates the need to improve the technique and tactics of catch of moving fish with pair trawls, which involves substantiating the operating parameters of the pair trawl system in accordance with the energy capabilities of fishing vessels of various tonnage and developing proposals for improving the equipping of the pair trawl system for fishing vessels of small and middle classes. The parameters of pair trawls are theoretically substantiated and a technical proposal has been developed for equipping a pelagic trawl with a net insert, which reduces the likelihood of fish leaving the catch zone under the footrope of pelagic trawl.