When you’re fishing, you’ll need some way to hold your first fish while you’re working on catching more. You don’t want your fish to dry out or get too warm. Keeping them on a stringer helps you transport them between fishing spots and gives you a way to secure them in the water to stay cool. In case you don’t have a commercially made stringer handy, don’t despair. You can easily make your own.
What you’ll need:
A branch. Flexible, easy to cut branches like willow and aspen work really well.
Knife. Your pocket knife is fine.
1. Find a branch about 2-3 feet long with another branch coming off it near the bottom of the length. If it has more branches coming off above that one, it’s okay.
2. Cut the branch off the tree below the junction of the two branches.
3. Cut any extra branches off and shorten your branch as desired to make it a good length to carry.
4. Trim the lower branch if desired.
That’s it. Now you can string the long branch into the fish gills and out its mouth and carry them with you as you continue fishing.
Fish waiting for his friends to be caught--stringer secured with rocks in slow current
If you put them back in the water, just make sure you’ve got your branch stringer secured with rocks or by tying it off to something so you don’t lose your catch. This method works great for smaller fish like trout, but it’s not going to hold a tuna or anything large like that.
Happy fishing!
