Making a Stripping Basket

Aside from my basic tackle setup, the item I would never leave behind on any fishing trip is a stripping basket. It serves many functions and resolves a litany of mishaps. Anything line can coil around will cause a tangle. A lone stalk of grass or strand of seaweed, a pebble the size of a walnut, a broken clamshell, twigs, shoelaces and a thousand other seemingly innocuous items invite line snarls and tangles. Even if your line falls on water that is free of debris, the surface will hold the line like a magnet and your forward cast will be robbed of considerable distance. The situation can worsen when current pulls the line opposite the direction you are trying to cast.

Wading poses the greatest obstacles, but fishing from boats, even those with clutter-free decks designed for fly-fishing, presents challenges if the line is not managed. I’m hard-pressed to recall a saltwater outing when there wasn’t at least a little breeze in the air, which is enough to blow fly line into places it shouldn’t be. Misplacing your feet is problematic as well. Even when barefoot, I can be standing on the line and not know it, causing the cast to come to a premature and abrupt end. The casting phase of the game isn’t the only part that can be impacted; dire consequences can also ensue when you hook a fish and the line is not free and clear. My friend lost contact with a substantial blue marlin when the line shot up from the deck and caught a boat cleat. I lost what would have been my second bluefin tuna on fly when a section of the running line was pinned under my foot. This situation was doubly sad because I had my stripping basket with me but neglected to put it on again after switching setups.

Managing Line
Nowadays, more and more fly-fishers angling from boats use what Dan Blanton refers to as VLMDs (vertical line-management devices). These are buckets,approximately knee-height, designed to hold fly and running lines. There are some commercially available, like the Beachcomber FlyLine Tamer from Pro-Trim and the Bucket II from Sea Level Flyfishing. These vertical buckets are what I choose when fly-fishing from a boat. If they aren’t available and when I’m wade-fishing, I go with the tried-and-true stripping basket. These too are commercially available, but I actually prefer the ones I make myself.

In addition to the money you’ll save, the advantage to making your own is that you can customize them to your specific needs. If you fish in a variety of locales, you’ll find that no one particular basket will ideally suit every situation. For example, in the surf, I definitely want a basket that allows water to drain, so all my beach baskets have holes in them. There are places, like Hawaii, where I may wade waist-deep. In these situations, I don’t want any water seeping into the basket, so I make sure it’s watertight. The more line you are working with, the greater the chance for tangles; to offset this, you may consider a slightly larger (deeper, wider, longer) basket.