Stringers

[moecarama]

The basket is the way to go while wading, attach a pool noodle around the top for additional flotation. I used a long rope and carabiner to keep snakes far enough away. I don't like them trailing me that close....yikes!

[warmouth]

I bank fish in the spring a lot, and the best stringer that I have come up with is a string stringer, with metal stringer clips. I use trottline swivels to connect the clips on the stringer.

When wading or just bank walking around brushy thick spawning cover, you don't want the fish on the stringer to have a lot of slack and room to roam, so you just tie up the string where the fish are just covered in water. The clips keep the fish more in a ball at the end of the string, than a line of fish on the stringer. I'll try to find a pic.

You can also put the amount of clips on the stringer as your limit. Or if you want you can double hook and put two fish on a hook without any down side. I've even had three on a hook with no problems.

The blue string is mine (top pile of fish, heads all close together), and you can see the fish all bunched together in a wad at the same level, instead of strung up the stringer. The yellow is my wife's, she had a metal chain stringer on the end of the traditional 'string' stringer which she prefer's and the fish are strung out with distance between them, but trust me, I'm right and she's wrong about which is best, LOL.

[Eagle 1]

Not sure of the best but let me tell you what not to use .Thirty or so yrs. ago, before I even knew about a crappie in Grenada lake . We were wading the back water throwing sassy shad spinnerbaits . My friend who left his stringer at home kept needing me to meet him to put fish on my stringer . I got tired of doing this and found a ten ft. of fly line . (tough stuff if you try to break it by hand ). I ties the first of my fish on and slid the rest on through the gills . Gave my buddy the stringer . Every once in a while it would snag brush and I would have to jerk them loose . Once as the fish came floating buy there was a 4 ft. water moccasin with the first fish in it's mouth came sliding up next to me . Fishing at Gore Springs in Waders has never appealed to me since . every time I see fly line I relive that moment .