Closing the handle hole

Some fly fishers that like to wade extremely deep may experience water going in through the handle hole. This is normally no problem as the stomach and the wading belt blocks this hole when the stripping basket is in place. But if you want to block the handle hole it is quite simple as you just place a piece of gaffa tape across the hole. In order to avoid exposing the sticky part of the gaffa tape, you may place one on the inside and one piece on the outside of the basket. This is a simple trick that works very well.

Position of the stripping basket

Most fly fishers prefer to position the stripping basket on the front but some find it more convenient to position the basket to side of the line hand. Here the rule is: do as you feel comfortable with. It depends on your double haul, your way of stripping the line etc. Here is shown a side position.

Flycasting against the wind or without wind

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The circumstances under which you are casting may change many times during a fishing day due to changes in wind direction, surroundings and many other variables. Some times you feel you are fly casting like a God and other times nothing works.

Especially when  casting with no wind or against the wind many fly casters find it very difficult to perform like normally. When you are casting into the wind, you have a very good explanation for the short casts and the collapsed leader, but in the no wind situation it may hard to accept the bad casting.

A tip to improve your casting under these hard conditions is to lay part of the running line outside the stripping basket as this will increase the drag from the running line during the casting. This will naturally decrease the distance but it will also make it easier to keep a very tight casting loop and to deliver the fly with a nicely stretched leader. The amount of line outside the basket may be varied depending on the amount of wind etc.

This is illustrated in the photo below.

Another very important casting tip in situations with no wind or a head wind is to focus very much on the casting technique instead of using more power.  

 

 

Correct line management

This is the most important tip on how to avoid tangling of the line when using a stripping basket . I have seen many stripping basket users that were not aware of this tip and probably some that skipped the basket due to problems introduced by not knowing this. This little trick is also helpful for any other kind of line keeping device so be attentive.

When you have finished the cast, you start to retrieve the line as normally, but the first yard or so of line you place outside the stripping basket or whatever line keeping device you are using. The rest of the line you retrieve and place in your basket or whatever you are using. Now when you start the casting movement for the next cast, you can move the rod hand freely without pulling in the line lying at the bottom of the basket. In this way the line leaves the basket in the opposite order of how it entered the basket and you will avoid most tangling. If you on the other hand start by pulling in the line placed lowest in the basket, you will for sure turn the pile of line and introduce tangling.

In this little movie you can see the tip. The movie start with a bit of bonefish juggling so be a little patient.