I tried saltwater flyfishing for the first time. I like it however, a stripping basket on the jetty’s is essential. Anyone know of any collaspable stripping baskets? I didn’t catch many fish either, 1 striped bass. That’s better than none. :lol:
This one, called a “Foam Fly Line Holster”, is an excellent device. It was designed by a Northern CA angler, Stan Pleskunas, with a talent for fabricating things. A lot of input from experience anglers went into the design.
www.orvis.com/store/product_choice.asp? … at_id=6011
There is a thread on baskets on Dan Blanton’s site that includes comments on the Fly Line Holster.
Hi JKilroy,
I have been eyeing the one made byWm Joseph which is available through cabela’s and feathercraft. It collapses into its own wading belt which in my opinion would be less bulky and make it eadier to include with gear when traveling. Think it runs about $39 + S & H.
Get yourself a hard basket like the Orvis or make one out of a dish pan.I fish the salt on a daily basis from the surf,jetty and wading the flats and the collapsable baskets are poor in comparison to a hard basket.I own 2 of them and they suck.A plain dish pan is much better.
Last year I was in San Diego and did some research into surf fishing, I didn’t get to do any then but I am ready to go back :lol: Anyway I discovered flytubez http://www.flytubez.com/index.html which are black plastic tubes with mounting screws. I went to Wal Mart and bought a $2.50 plastic tub and drilled drainage holes in it. I then placed 6 flytubez in it with an old web belt to hold it on. I have used it when fishing from shoe around ponds and it works great. Flytubez cost me 10 bucks so I have $12.50 in my home made stripping basket.
Dan
Ya might try (after checking the sponsors here. 
)
Stan Pleskunas … stanpleskunas@sbcglobal.net
He makes some danged good ones.
....lee s.
Hey Lee,
The Orvis Fly Line Holster is Stan’s basket.
Why do you want collapsable? They collapse at the wrong times. The LL Bean Basket is the best one for a rigid basket. Inexpensive-very well made, form fit to body etc. Great for what you seem to be doing. That is what i use in the surf…
I wanted it to be collapsable for portability, pack in suitcase with minimum space taken up. I don’t know how good they work.
eponymous, do you own the one you linked on the tread? If so, how do you like it? :lol:
Jkilroy…
As stated above the soft baskets stink. All kinds of line tangles. Your better off with the hard sided baskets with some cones of stiff mono in the bottom to fend off line tangles. Portability is not a problem with these as you can pack other items, (like fly boxes, socks etc.), inside the stripping basket and it doesn?t take up any more room in your luggage than a soft sided basket.
The Orvis Fly Line Holster is an exception as far as soft baskets and tangles are concerned. The Foam is sturdy enough that it doesn’t collapse, the bottom is fly, and the spikes prevent tangles.
tailingloop…
The Orvis soft holster looks like it would be OK. It would just aggravate me to pay $55 for a piece of soft foam.
I bought the collapsable one from llbean. I think it was 19.99. I’ve used it just a few times but I really like it. I sure does help when fishing the surf. I liked the fact that I can stuff it into a gear bag, being that it isn’t rigid. My 2 cents.
phish
is the one made by Charlie Sander of Florida.
I’m a US Coast Guard-licensed Captain who guides half the year in Florida and the other half on Michigan trout streams. Without question, Charlie’s basket is the best. It folds flat, or twists into a softball-size ball.
The nice thing is that it hangs around your leg in the perfect position, or you can expand the strap and wear it around your waits if you’re surf fishing.
It sells for about $40. Casey Key Anglers & Outfitters in Venice, FL, carries them. 941-483-1115.
Tight Loops
Is it just me, but why aren’t things from our product test section ever listed? There are all kinds of things that we give a pretty good review of, straight opinion and pictures.
Now, I hate stripping baskets. They are aqward, in the way, work poorly at best and always cost too much. There is one that I can ‘live with.’ That means, I have not yet set fire to it. This is it.
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/prorevw/stripnaid.html
just my 2 cents…I use the LL Bean stripping basket, the hard one, and drilled holes in the bottom for drainage. it works for me! but I am interested in trying their soft basket for those long hikes. stuff it into my backpack, one less thing to carry. tight lines…
All stripping baskets or devices are a compromise of some sort. Often one type that works well for one type of fishing will not work well for others.
The “Strippin-Aid” that JC referred to works quite well in many situations. But a wave the breaks over it will take the line with it and a strong breeze may carry the line aways as well. As such, this device does not work well in our Southern CA surfzone, but it will do nicely walking the shoreline or working from a jetty, or wading when there is no threat of waves breaking over the device.
The Charley Sanders basket is nice for many situations but it does not drain fast enough for the surfzone. If a wave breaks into to it, it collapses a bit and the line jumbles and gets tangled. Some anglers improve this by velcroing a sheet of plastic with spikes into the bottom. I use one of these quite a bit on local lakes. It is probably the easiest to store and transport of any that I have seen or devised.
The hard pan type baskets like those from Orvis and LL Bean provide rigidity but must have drained holes drilled in them. This helps keep the line in when water gets in, and is a saftey feature in the surf where you don’t want a water filled basket dragging you down. In calm waters like lakes and bays, such a unit with no holes will float on the water when the belt is left loose, which makes the device easier to manage. The old standby rubbermaid dishpan, with modifications, will work nearly as well.
The Orvis Foam Fly Line Holster was designed to address the limitations of both hard and soft baskets, with lots of input from very experienced anglers. It is a great product but I think many are put off by the cost. It won’t be perfect for every condition either.
Many of the soft mesh types will collapse when you don’t want them to. And those with tapered bottoms seem to be more likely to produce tangles.
I don’t think anyone has created the perfect one yet.
FYI-Basket Lovers:
The “Big O” currently has some $60.00 portable travel stripping baskets on sale through STP for a mere $14.00. That must say something about the performance or maybe just the popularity.
I have a William Joseph Retractable Stripping Basked and find that it works well with the kind of fishing I do.
http://www.williamjoseph.net (look under products ->tools)
Most of my fishing is out of a canoe or kayak. The basket easily retracts so you can get it out of the way when it is not in use (like paddeling to a new spot) The belt/basket is light weight, doesn’t take up much room and packs easily. It doesn’t fold down into something the size of a baseball, but it will easily fit into a suitcase or backpack. Furthermore, it is well made and isn’t all that expensive.