On Sunday (4/6) I was at Fletcher's in the morning fishing for shad (caught 6 nice hshad). Around 10am something HUGE hit my fly. Skipping ahead to the end of the story - I lost the fish, so I don't have a positive ID, but it fought like a Striper. It was definitely much bigger than a shad. Okay, back to the beginning of the story, I had a lot of line at my feet in the boat, so I was afraid to try to give up much line or try to get to a place where I could use the reel. I thought the line would get tangled or wrapped around my feet (as it often does). Since I didn't really have a drag to help me, the fish pulled me off my anchor and almost into another boat. Trying to avoid getting swept away I tried to muscle the fish to the boat to land it quickly and deal with my anchor. About 10 feet from the boat the fish spit my fly.
I was disappointed that I wasn't able to fight the fish better, and a little tired of feeling like my line was always under my feet. I looked up stripping baskets online, but didn't feel like paying for one, so I made one. A rubbermaid dish tub, 9 zip ties, and one bungee cord later I had my basket. Haven't been back to Fletcher's with it yet (this weekend I will), but I've used it at Gravelly and 4MR this week, both places where my line always ended up caught under a rock or on the fencing. It's been great, probably has added about 40% to the distance of my roll casts. I thought it would be sort of cumbersome to use, but it feels pretty natural.
Anyway, this whole story to say:
1) I'm gonna get that striper one of these days
2) I would encourage anyone to try using a stripping basket if you also struggle with line under your feet. Making one like the one I did costs less than $10.
-- I was disappointed that I wasn't able to fight the fish better, and a little tired of feeling like my line was always under my feet. I looked up stripping baskets online, but didn't feel like paying for one, so I made one. A rubbermaid dish tub, 9 zip ties, and one bungee cord later I had my basket. Haven't been back to Fletcher's with it yet (this weekend I will), but I've used it at Gravelly and 4MR this week, both places where my line always ended up caught under a rock or on the fencing. It's been great, probably has added about 40% to the distance of my roll casts. I thought it would be sort of cumbersome to use, but it feels pretty natural.
Anyway, this whole story to say:
1) I'm gonna get that striper one of these days
2) I would encourage anyone to try using a stripping basket if you also struggle with line under your feet. Making one like the one I did costs less than $10.
http://www.tpfr.org
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