Stripping basket as a wading stick

Though I have been using a stripping basket or a line tray for many years and regard myself as quite an experienced stripping basket user I can still learn new tricks and ways to use this device. What I will describe I learned from Steen Ulnits a danish sports fishing journalist. Steen has written countless of articles and several books and has a very nice website www.ulnits.dk  allthough only in danish. Now Steen shall not have all the credit for this trick and I am sure he will not claim this as he learned the trick from an irish guide when fishing in Ireland for sea bass at a rocky coast.

The trick is to use the stripping basket as a sort of wading stick. You hold the stripping basket in one hand (here the built in handle comes in very handy – sorry) and due the buoyancy when put on the surface you can maintain your balance when you are about to loose it. I have tried this myself and it has worked extremely well both in streams and in saltwater situations. Naturally the stripping basket can not replace a wading stick in all situations but it may save you the hassle of carrying a wading stick when it is only rarely needed and it may help you in the situations where you did not expect the need for a wading stick and therefore did not bring one. Of course the basket as a wading stick can not push or pull you up against a very heavy current, but the help you get is like holding someone in the hand when wading. You may be helped in the off balance situation so you can re-establish your balance before the small imbalances develop into big imbalances – read very wet disasters.

In the photo below the technique is illustrated