Stripping basket on a pontoon boat

I have owned a pontoon boat for many years but until recently I only used it in lakes as I bought it for pursuing brown trout and white fish with dry fly. This fishing is almost always in situations with no or almost no wind and I have naturally used the ”table” of stretched mesh built into the front part of the pontoon boat. With no wind and only casting shorter distances this worked fine for me.

Last year I started to use the pontoon boat in saltwater when fly fishing for sea trout. I knew that in the end it would ruin my pontoon boat as the frame is a steel construction – and less than a year later the rust has popped up in many places – too bad but now I love using my pontoon boat at sea so much, that I will go on and next time I need to buy a pontoon boat it will be with an aluminum frame. Fishing in saltwater for sea trout introduced new problems as this often takes place in windy situations. The ”mesh tables” was not very good any longer as I used much longer casts and therefore had much more shooting line to control and the wind often blew the shooting line into the water and this really tangled my line or reduced the casting distance. The solution was very simple as I just placed my beloved stripping basket on the side af the pontoon boat – it was easy to strap it on and it works perfectly despite it is not in level. Furthermore it is nice to bring the stripping basket in this way as it is very easy to dismount and use it if I hit a spot best fished on foot.

In the photo below my pontoon boat with the basket is shown. You may read more and see more photos here.

 

 

In a belly boat you have the same problems as in the pontoon boat and a friend of mine, Michael, is a keen belly boat fisher, and he always uses a stripping basket when fly fishing in the belly boat.

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