Yeah, it's true, Rob's constantly getting bit by short halibuts. A trick for mackerel (wouldn't reccommend this with fish you want to release, alive...) is to grab em by the gill plate and squeeze. That really calms em down (you know how mackerel are). But, I'm sure it does quite a bit of damage to their gills so I wouldn't reccommend it for halibut/wsb. If done properly, gilling seabass can be unharmful, but it's easier to either grab the hook with pliers and remove it in the water without touching the fish, or grabbing it behind the head like Rob said. Occasionally I'll gill a fish (especially if I'm going to keep it) but be sure to keep your fingers out of the gills. Just slip em underneath the gill cover. For one, you'll cut up your hands really badly if you stick em in the gill rakers, and two, you'll mess up the fish's gills.

Getting back to halibut, the reasoning for the mesh net is to not damage the tail for fish that you want to release. If you're in a kayak and low to the water already, you could probably very easily remove the hook from the fish alongside the boat rather than bringing it aboard, messing up the slime coat etc. Some of the guys in private boats can't do this very easily and need to net the fish to remove the hook properly. I'd leave netting as a last resort from a kayak if you want to release the fish. Of course there'll be those fish that you have to net, like the psycho ones or bad hook location or whatever, but whenever possible, I'd suggest just leaving the fish next to you in the water and shaking the hook loose with pliers, or if you're fishing plastic just grab the leadhead and remove the hook.
-Brian