What do you use for a fish stringer?

[VaCrappieMan]

I was curious what you guys used as a fish stringer. If you made yours post a pic of it! I am tired of the nylon stringer and I can't get 15 crappie on the chain stringer. What do you guys use?

Thanks,

-VCM

[bdorman]

Last year I used a cooler, but this year I bought a basket 15" wide by 30" deep. This way I can release if I haven't caught enough to make it worth cleaning. I'm not sure how many crappie it can hold before they start dying of stress but 15 sounds like a lot. Can't give you a report on it yet because there's still 2 inches of ice on the lake.

[jigflinger]

I use a basket until the water really warms up and makes it difficult to keep them alive. Then I switch to a cooler with an aerator and add a little ice if necessary.

[dallas1]

basket is best for me, as said if i decide not to keep them i can let them go alive.
i used a stringer for years they are a pain in the butt. try a basket or cooler you will never go back to a stringer.

[VaCrappieMan]

The basket complicates things because it doesn't fit down in the bucket when I leave... I carry a bucket I sit the minnows down in and toss a water bottle on top and what not but the basket probably wouldn't work out for me... I've used a basket several times out in a small boat and it works out great...

-VCM

[VaCrappieMan]

Forgot to add I have to walk around 300 yards to where I fish which isn't really far but its a pain in the butt to take a cooler or having to carry a basket in the same hand as a rod

[archer66]

My livewell doesn't have a divider and I hate to mess with marking fish so in my boat one guy uses the livewell, one guy uses a basket at the front of the boat and the third guy uses a basket at the back of the boat.

Nothing goes in my livewell or baskets if I don't KNOW for sure that I'm going to clean it. A 20 ounce soda bottle filled with water and frozen works wonders in a livewell.....and when it gets too hot for the baskets I use coolers with frozen bottles. Nothing worse than cleaning a mess of fish that have been dead for two hours or more so I try real hard to keep em alive and fresh.

[BigRiverMarine]

If I'm going to eat em, a cooler with ice water. We take a cooler full of ice and pour water in it so the fish will have ice and cold water on all sides. If you're not going to eat them, throw em back immediately.

BTW, if you're not going to clean them till the next day, we drain off the water before we go home so the fish won't get soft. Works like a champ in the summer months!!!!


BRM

[rnvinc]

Send Shipahoy41 a PM to get you a pic of his "bank fishin carryall setup"...

He also has some good ideas about totin stuff for bank fishing...

Rickie

[CrappiePappy]

VCM ... I use one of these : Deluxe Chain Stringer, 6 foot when I'm bank fishing. If I happen to have more fish than stringer clips ... I just double them up, or triple them up.

If you don't trust having more than one fish on each clip ... just buy a second chain stringer. If you need it, you got it ... and if you don't need it, it's not going to take up much space or add much weight.

You could also consider getting a cheap backpack (yard sale special) and a heavy duty plastic bag ... then just put the stringerfull of fish in the plastic bag, and put the bag into the backpack. Hands would be free to carry whatever else !!

... cp