Been goofing around with the flyrod in the salt. So, what is interesting is that i have hooked into some monsters but have yet to land one. User error, on my strip set, the bigger bass have gone airborn and in the heat of battle I forget to bow. Breakoffs…
Crazy how strong these striped bass are. I am more or less stripping them in and not using the reel. So much fun. This one was about 30" or so. A pretty common size.
Good times!
Something I need to do, fly in the surf.
Please look up:
Big Fish on Tenkara: Understand Why and How it Works/ -
Zen Tenkara
HTTPS://www.zen Tenkara.com/big-fish-on-Tenkara-understand-why-and-how-it-works/
American Tenkara Big Fish Extreme Tenkara Fixed Line Fly Fishing Fly Fishing How to Tenkara Karin Miller saltwater tenkara Tenkara Zen Tenkara
Hahahaha. You do realize that this was a flyfishing thread Karl?
Your link was broken. I think this is the one… Big Fish on Tenkara: Understand Why and How it Works - Zen Tenkara
I am not in the Karin Miller school of fixed line fishing and really her info in that doc is largely misinformed and simplistic.
You might not know this but I have targeted large fish on fixed line, really it is such a poor tool for the task, really it is more of a handicap. I will say it is fun to try, but it is like stacking odds against an angler to think that using a fixed line is any sort of advantage. It is a marked disadvantage.
Again… Is it fun? Hell Yeaaaaaaaaah! That said, if you want to engage and land big fish, it is a horrible tool. Try it yourself Karl, but I would be wary of Evangelists like Karin Miller.
Tenkara is best for targeting trout in high gradient streams. The further we drift from that the less utility. Dont confuse this with the freedom to do what we want and enjoy, but it is what I have found. I have hooked some monster trout, salmon, and striped bass with fixed line. It is a fun endeavor, but not practical at all.
Karin Miller is in the business of marketing and really using a fixed line rod for the kind of fish she is after is impressive, both in her stubborn will and her patience for making it happen. Not for me, as even with a flyrod and reel it can be challenging.
Folk successful at landing large on flyrods do this:
I agree with this statement - certainly when it comes to my take on tenkara.
The other thing is what she notes has been covered several times over by the tenkara guides in a more concise way. notes on fighting angle and as they coined it…power curve.
Oldie but goodie from 2016…
https://web.archive.org/web/20161027200112/http://tenkaraguides.com/ten-colors-lab/big-fish/
G, thank you for putting up a link to Karin’s article that actually works, which I appreciate that very much.
Yes, your article is a fly fishing piece but, this is a fixed line board and there are people who do catch bone fish on Tenkara rods and, apparently, enjoy the challenges they present.
I have tried doing the things Karin and Rob suggest doing (side pressure, changing direction, steering the fish away from obstructions, making the fish fight the current as well as the rod) and it is all helpful. And not just on big fish. If you want to use these tactics on big fish, we need to practice them all the time on all the fish that we catch.
And here, I would like to mention a technique Karin did not mention: Stripping fish in instead of hand-over-handing them in. In fly fishing stripping line in is used to by pass having to wind the line in on the reel. Since fixed line rods do not use reels, stripping line on Tenkara rods is equally useful in landing fish.
With a fly rod, the angler strips the line in from below his rod/line control hand. On a fixed line rod, the angler strips the line in from above his rod/line control hand, a full arm length at a time with the line being in full control the whole time, instead of making many hand-over-hand maneuvers that usually results in a lot of rod movement, which puts the rod and line in danger of getting tangled in trees and brush.
In stripping a fish in on a fixed line rod, there is no pressure placed on the rod at all once the angler has control on the line with his rod/line control hand, and you can strip the fish in right up to the bottom of your rod/line control hand for easy hook removal.
For the ultimate in line control and line safety, a Stripping Basket can also be put to good use. It also makes a handy place to put a fish, except that a flopping fish can get intangled in the line from time to time. But the line is usually not to hard to straighten out after removing the fish.
So, I guess what this amounts to is different strokes for different folks. Please do what you like and enjoy doing in your fishing. We are all out here to have fun.
I would like to know who else is targeting bonefish with a fixed line. I also would love to see video of folk doing it as it cannot be pretty or graceful. Some of the shots in Karin’s post suggest what I think would happen. One shot has her with a sizable wake around her. I suspect she is running after her fish.
If you read my recent bone trip report, I did have a fixed line incident, and reflecting on it there is no way I would attempt it with a fixed line rod.
When bonefishing you use stealth to get close enough to have a shot. You can catch multiple fish on a flat, but if you ran around the flat chasing after fish you would most likely taint the whole area. It might be a one and done sort of thing.
What Karin is doing is not practical, but I am sure it is fun. Fixed line has its advantages, but with big fish all it provides is a challenge.
Sort of like a woodworker can build anything using hand tools, but some tasks can be executed more efficiently with power tools. Saws and drills are prime examples. One can prove they have the skill to to do things by hand, but it doesnt improve the result and arguably is a less efficient path. Hand tools shine on tasks that cannot be executed by machines. Just as a tenkara rod shines on tasks that are not practical for a spinning rod or a fly rod and reel.
Large fish is relative. For some an 8 lb trout is a large fish. In the salt an 8lb fish is bait.
Karl, try fishing the salt with a fixed line. I suspect you will come to the same conclusion. If you ever find yourself in the northeast, give me a heads up, and I will take you. Just getting a large fish on any tackle is a task. Factor in wind and casting radius, just hooking up is an incredible obstacle. Fixed line rods suck at casting streamers…line does not have enough mass to turn them over. I have made my own flylines for my carp rod, it works but their is little joy or precision in it. I would much rather cast a regular flyrod.
