I use mine whenever I can remember to grab it, when I forget, I usually regret. The basket serves a couple of purposes, first being to keep your line up out of the water where it can get carried by the tidal current. Depending on where and when you are fishing, this may not be much of a problem, if there is not a cross current on the beach you are fishing or if the tide is slack at the time. Second purpose it can help keep your line from rubbing on the barnacle encrusted rocks at your feet which will help extend the life of the line. Thirdly, it can help keep your line from entangling in kelp and sea grass floating in the water at your feet. All of these factors will vary depending on where and often when you fish, so you may be fine without a basket one day, but the next day you could find yourself wishing you had one. The final purpose for the basket is that it keeps the line up out of the water, which reduces the drag from the water (as the shooting line picks up the slack line in the water, the surface tension of the water adds resistance and can shorten your casts). I can usually cast my full 100 feet with only a single false cast when using a basket as the slack line slips effortlessly from the basket. When the line is in the water I need to pick up a little more line to get enough energy in the rod to pick rest of the line up out of the water. The fewer false casts you make, the longer it takes to tire you out when you are fishing all day in 25 degree weather. The down side for me is the strip retrieve can be cumbersome, trying to get the line into the basket, depending on the type of basket you have, and how deep you are standing in the water. I am using a simple tupperware container for my basket, so the design is not optimal.
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Topic: strip buckets (Read 7063 times)