Volanakis is particularly fond of depicting scenes of everyday life in the countryside, and here he presents a genre scene where the central theme is fishing with nets. With a realistic detailed description and selective impressionistic rendering, he describes the work of fishing in a multi-person composition. His poetic mood is evident in the surrounding atmosphere, with appealing subtle alternations between cool and warm colours.

The calm sea stretches across the width of the painting, gently illuminated by the morning light. The terrain of a long strip of land is outlined in the background, and small and large moored sailboats are visible in front of it. A manned sailboat with its sails down is depicted on the left, while a fishing boat is prominent in the centre. Three fisherman standing on the deck are collecting the nets and another is rowing. All the individual elements have been rendered in minute detail, including the movements of the fishermen, the garments, the features of the wooden boat, the utility objects on the wale, even the shading.