The top ten reasons stripping baskets are sexy..

    Personally I feel that the stripping basket is fly fishings hottest accessory. Both functional and attractive no fashion concious fly rodder should be without one.

1.       They keep your line from tangling like Fabio’s hair in front of a wind machine.

2.       Anybody that will wear what amounts to a dishpan around their waist is obviously comfortable in their appearance…..and their sexuality.

3.       I almost always meet hot chicks while wearing one. Okay maybe not meet, more like gawk as they go walking by on the beach. (note: Police Officers are not there as match makers)

4.       You can always say that you’re pushing out your stomach to help keep the basket in place.

5.       They make your butt look smaller. That’s probably not true but I’m leaving it in anyway.

6.       They give you a great spot to place your hands for that “I’m cool but disinterested” pose.

7.       Stickers, you can pimp out a stripping basket in such a way that even an East L.A. low-rider would blush.

8.       Distance, everyone knows that longer is better.

9.       Their muted colors go with everything!

10.   It’s a much hotter accessory than the Murse.

Sometimes you get the bear....

  Fish are funny creatures in general and when you put them in shallow water it gets even worse. Corbina are that way, they make fools of the best fly fishers with an almost graceful ease. Think that cast was spot on? They’ll just move a foot to the left in the time it takes for your fly to unroll out of its loop.  When you think that fish is coming for your fly and you’re trembling with anticipation they just swim calmly over top of it, barely lifting their sand crab stuffed belly far enough from the bottom to clear the hook point. The fact that you can see all of this happening is both a blessing and a curse. I think that any type of sight fishing is.  So, while sight fishing is the most exciting way to catch them it’s not the only way.

  I’ve been spending some time fishing in an area that has produced several world record corbina but not for corbina. Instead I’ve been on a mission to get a big halibut on the fly and this spot is known for that as well.  As summer progresses and the water warms the halibut have a tendency to head into deeper, cooler water with a little less penetration of light into their realm. Corbina to an extent will do the opposite. They enjoy the warming waters and the lack of a marine layer doesn’t seem to hurt their eyes as much as other species. It could just be that with the increased visibility from my perch on the beach that I just tend to notice them more.

The question that haunts us.. Which one to use?

I saved a bunch of money by switching to Geico

   I’d been making my way down the beach taking pictures and casting, my total take for the morning one slight little needlefish with an impossibly large appetite considering the size of the flies I was using.  I’m easily distracted so when I saw the remains of what must have been a sand castle competition I stopped and started taking pictures of that. My fishing partner however, was much more focused than me.  She continued on down the beach and after I’d entertained myself looking at the amazing creations that had been left on the beach (I can barely get a bucket of moist sand to stand correctly) I figured I’d better catch up.

 Fishing our way down the beach she spotted the fish first. The size of it was impressive, most are around eighteen inches and this one added a half a foot at least to that. Being the chivalrous male that I am and not wanting to end up with a 7 wt being broken over my head, I offered to let her cast in the area that she’d spotted the fish.  A few casts later and I hear a whooping noise followed by “You’ll want to get a picture of this one!”  I shuffled my way back over to where she was backing out of the water trying to get the line clear of her legs and the stripping basket.  A few moments later I managed to help get the line untangled from around her legs where the surf had tangled it. I’m positive that there was more than one onlooker laughing quietly, okay loudly at the sight of me with my camera slung around my neck and her alternating which foot she was standing on so that I could get the line clear. Finally the line was cleanly on the reel and it seemed the battle was won.  I was starting to forget my own disappointment at not getting a cast or two towards the fish before she ran me off like a grizzly protecting its salmon dinner, in fact I was actually getting excited at the thought of getting a few shots of it with the camera.

The only shot I actually got.

 This was not meant to be though. I was standing in the surf waiting to get a nice broadside shot of the fish in the water and planning the series of shots that I wanted once it was on the sand.  A loud, rather unladylike word came out of her mouth and I turned to see the rod pointed straight up into the air. If you’re not familiar with fishing that’s not a position that you want to see the rod in when a fish is supposed to be on the other end. Something had given and it wasn’t the fish, one last attempt had earned its early release. The anger level radiating outwards from a roughly five foot six inch epicenter convinced me to stay well out of range, a distance I estimated at about twenty feet. The distance I figured she could throw the rod with any sort of accuracy.

  Eventually she cooled down enough to make the walk back to the vehicles. Being who I am as soon as I thought I could get away with it I commented on her use of an open ended loop knot. A knot which I reminded her was very difficult to master.  Unfortunately though I had miscalculated both the amount of time needed for her to cool off and the speed with which the toe of her wading boot could connect with the back part of my thigh.  These things happen…

You've got to have soul

   I remember reading somewhere in a Stephen King book the character stating “you’ve got to have soul”. I don’t remember the name of the book or character off the top of my head but I’ll never forget that line.

   Fly fishing is the same way, at least for me it is. I was told recently that people wanted to see noyhing but how-to articles and blog posts. If that’s true then how do you explain the success of mags like The Drake and Fly Fish Journal? I like the occasional how-to but it seems as if we’re bombarded with them on a daily basis. How to tie a knot!  How to Catch a Trout! How to find that secret spot that no one else knows about except they all do now, because we just blew it up for you!  Fuck THAT!

 I’ve been struggling with my own fishing lately and now I know why. I let that “soul” go, let myself get too mechanical.  I got worried that someone was going to see me make a bad cast or trout set on some beastie.  I thought if I mechanically fished my way through that run or the trough along the beach that I wouldn’t miss any fish. I forgot that although the fish are what gets me there it’s the soul that I stay for. I’d watch Pelicans diving on bait thinking what a cool picture it would make if I caught that moment when they break through the meniscus. That one exact time when the water opens up and says “you’ve earned it”. What was I doing instead?  Mechanically working my way down the beach trying not to miss a section of bottom, cutting it apart like a grid. Cast, step, retrieve, step, repeat. Not in the fun way that Steelheaders seem so adept at but more like a bunch of robots at some car factory in Detroit. Buzzzz, whirrr, twist and snip.

 Well, fuck that. It’s not why I fish. I’m as competitive as the next guy, maybe even more so if you ask my friends but it’s not my only reason for fishing.  I fish because as a kid I could walk down the railroad tracks to old Mrs. Sills Bass pond and see Deer or Egrets or Ospreys and even catch some fish if conditions were right. I could sneak into the run down barn where they used to have their dairy and check out the old unfinished restoration of the Model T.  When the sunlight would hit that car and shine off the metal shavings that were on the floor it was magic. I’d sit in the dust and wonder how much time her husband had put into that car and if she left it there after he’d passed away hoping he’d come back to finish it.

I fish because there’s always something new to see and learn. What makes a Striped Bass go from the Chesapeake all the way north, sometimes as far as Maine and back again? How come the sunrise always seems that much more spectacular when you have a fly rod in your hands? I’ve never seen a marsh dawn over the bayou and I want to more than anything. I have seen the sun rise over Long Island Sound and seeing the swirls of Stripers and bluefish as they chase down sand eels in that eerie gray light of dawn though. That’s the kind of thing that gives it soul.

You’ve got to have soul, man