Stripping Basket

by Mike McGuire

April 2009

A stripping basket is a very handy accessory for casting shooting heads, especially for surf fishing. If you let the line fall into the water as you strip in, the wash back and forth of the surf will surely tangle it, limiting, often severely the distance of the next cast. If you strip into a a  basket you have a decent chance of a good next cast. You can spend a lot of money for a stripping basket, but there is no need to. A small plastic basket with lots of openings strapped to your waist will do the trick. You want lots of openings in case you take a wave full force into the basket so it won't knock you down. A further refinement is some spikes sticking up in to bottom of the basket which helps keep the line from tangling with itself. A nice source of such spikes is and item sold by a Japanese consumer goods store Daiso which has a number of outlets around the Bay Area.  The price of most of the stuff including this item is 100 yen which amounts to $1.50 in these stores. The item is in the gardening goods section. It's something to attach to your porch railing to keep birds from alighting and making a mess. The spikes are about 3" long. Here's a picture of it

They also have a nice selection of suitable baskets. Below is a picture of a finished stripping basket, assembled with cable wraps and a belt with fastex (quick release) buckles.



I thinned out the spikes a little as an experiment. It seemed to work a little better that way. However the basic idea is the main thing to make casting in the surf a lot less hassle.