Fishing Tips

How To Avoid “Stripper Finger”

Strip, strip, strip. That’s what you’ve been doing for the past several hours just hoping to feel that line come tight. As the day goes by you soon begin to notice an uncomfortable pain in your line guiding finger. One look at your finger and you find that your fly line has cut and burned itself right through your skin. These are all symptoms of what I like to call “Stripper Finger.”

Stripper finger is a common ailment that fly anglers face when fishing streamer patterns or stillwaters all day. The combination of wet or dry hands and stripping in fly line for a long period of time creates friction that can burn its way through the skin of your guiding finger.

My first experience with stripper finger happened while I was fishing Pyramid Lake in the middle of winter. This lake is famous for its big Lahontan cutthroat trout and I was stripping streamers right off the drop-off in efforts to land my first cuttie. About two hours into fishing I noticed a bit of blood on my clothing. Confused as to why I was bleeding I performed a self check and found that my fly line had cut through the skin of my finger. Without a solution at the time I continued fishing for about an hour before I finally gave in to the pain. I left the lake fishless and vowed to figure out a solution.


The first solution that came to mind was a stripping guard. A stripping guard is a piece of fabric that fits over your finger to protect it from stripper finger. After purchasing a stripping guard and trying it out I found that I was happy to not have any more cuts but was unsatisfied with the overall product.

  1. The stripping guard felt too loose. I’ll admit that I have slender girly fingers which doesn’t help but I knew that if I bought a different brand the result would be the same.
  2. The guard made me lose the sensation of feeling my line. I had difficulties detecting subtle hits and grabs due to the thickness and stiffness of the material.
  3. The combination of a soaked up stripping guard and cold winter air made my finger cold.

The next thing I tried were a pair of fishing gloves. I bought a pair of Glacier Gloves designed with a stripping guard. These gloves didn’t work well to protect me from stripper finger due to the way I guide my line. My fly line goes between the indentation of the tip and middle of my finger. The gloves left too much of my finger tip exposed therefore my fly line would get caught on the very end of the glove material. After experiencing chilling winter winds while fishing I was hoping that gloves would help keep my hands from getting cold however as soon as they got a little wet my hands started to freeze. Much like the stripping guard, gloves limited my fly line senses which made me miss a lot of grabs that I should have hook

The best solution for stripper finger that I’ve found has been waterproof adhesive tape. This tape is readily available in nearly every pharmacy store, is easy to take off and on, customizable for your own use, and won’t intrude with your fly line sense. I take a roll of tape with me wherever I know I’ll be stripping in fly line such as the surf or the lake. If the adhesive isn’t sticking anymore I’ll just take it off and put on a new one. No more cold hands or missed grabs. A simple solution to a simple problem.

Lake Marlette

Hiking and Fishing Marlette Lake

Marlette Lake is a high elevation lake in Nevada within the Carson range. The lake sits at about 7,841ft and the only way to get to it is to either hike or bike. Marlette Lake is known for its brook trout, rainbow trout, and Lahontan cutthroat trout that are used as brooders for Nevada’s fisheries. These fish can range from very small 6” fish to large trophy size +20”.


The hike up to Marlette Lake begins at Spooner Lake and is about a ten mile round-trip; five miles of steady uphill and five miles back downhill. The elevation gain is about 1,140ft. The hike up Marlette Lake is half the experience of fishing the lake and though it was pretty tough it was worth it.

 

Spooner Lake



Our hike began at about noon from Spooner Lake. Due to a running event that was taking place around the lake we had to shuttle in from the watercraft inspection area a few hundred yards away from the entrance. After a quick bathroom stop we were off to Marlette Lake.

The hike to the lake wasn’t too difficult but it was challenging. The first mile was pretty leveled however the following three miles was steady uphill climbing. It wasn’t until the last mile where you would then start to descent down to the lake.

Hiking Up
First View of Lake Marlette



We arrive at Marlette Lake at around 3pm and found it to be as beautiful as it should be. An inlet creek that was modified for spawning could be found right as you entered the first access to the lake. I brought my 5WT with me along with several different flies. The first pattern I tied on was an olive woolly bugger which I stripped from the banks. The water was surprisingly warm which had me a bit worried. On my second cast I hooked what felt like a nice fish and into the net was my first big brookie.

Nice Big Brookie
Casting Marlette Lake

After some success I continued fishing but couldn’t get any more takes. I switched to a smaller pattern, a zebra midge, and hooked a small brookie. I contemplated whether or not I wanted to catch more fish or bigger fish and decided it was either go big or go home. I switched back to my bugger and started pounding the banks for a big grab. The shore around the lake was pretty shallow and weedy so I used a beadheaded bugger on a floating line. I covered some water on the eastern side and hooked another big brookie that threw the hook. I kept making my way north but couldn’t find any fish.


The clock was ticking and I was starting to feel it. I knew it would take about two hours to get back down the hill which left me only about an hour before we had to start heading back. I got out of the water and started hiking towards an area that looked like an island. As I entered the cove next the island I spotted several trout cruising around. It was a good mix of primarily rainbow trout with a few brook trout all between 10” – 18”. These fish were keyed in on white moths that were committing insect suicide by jumping into the lake. I quickly tied on a Sheep Creek special and hooked my first Marlette rainbow trout. It wasn’t a big fish but it got me closer to a grand slam. I continued to fish and hooked a few more fish before I reached my time limit.

White Satin Moth
Marlette Rainbow


We started to hike back down at around 6pm. The sound of thunder kept us company during our downhill trek and we finally arrived at our initial starting point at around 8pm.
My impression of Marlette Lake is a moderately difficult hike with the reward of catching some nice fish at the end. The weather was perfectly overcast during our hike which kept the temperature nice and comfortable. It was a long day but overall worth the trip up. Though I wish I had more time to fish, I had a lot of fun and would do it again. 

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