Storing fish on a kayak is always a challenge, and anyone who has used a stringer knows that stringers often rust or are just plain troublesome to use. I can relate several horror stories where I had “stringer malfunctions” either getting fish on the stringer, having a stringer decide to leave my kayak unintentionally, or finding my stringer rotted or rusted when I needed it. At ICAST 2009 I came across an interesting booth run by the folks at Innovative Products who truly have an innovative product, the QuikSlide Stringer system.
As the picture above shows, the system starts with a PVC-coated stainless steel cable. It comes in 3′ and 6′ lengths, has a clip on the end for securing it to your boat, and since it is coated will not scratch your boat surface and is easy on your hands. Near the top of the string is a short area which has no PVC coating and this is where the QuikSlide snaps mount onto the stringer. Each kit includes 6 QuikSlide snaps made of stainless steel with a sliding lock and a mount tube that fits over the exposed portion of the stringer. The snaps are available in multiple colors and come with a convenient storage clip.
I attached my stringer to a handle on my kayak with a simple loop. The 3′ length model was perfect for the kayak – not so short it made paddling difficult and not so long that I had to take in slack. When you catch a fish just pull a snap off the storage clip, open it and run it through the fish’s jaw while the fish is in the net or on a fish grip. Then simply take the fish by the clip and slide it onto the exposed portion of the string and “Voila!” the fish is on the stringer without moving the stringer out of the water.
I had a 23″ Red Drum and 3 17-19″ Black Drum (about 13lbs of fish) on the stringer and all four fish were happily swimming along for hours. They never got tangled and with the QuikSlide system their snaps could actually move around on the string without any danger of them coming off.
After cleaning my fish all the QuikSlide system needed was a brief rinse before putting the snaps back on the storage clip and into my tackle box. I really liked the strength and convenience of the system, and look forward to the durability the stainless steel design promises.