A few aspects that the author misses in the conversation, is in the power of the length of a spring. The longer the spring, the more range it has in its power and effect. In both tenkara and other fishing, the advantage of a long spring to throttle and absorb a lunge of a fish is absolutely an efficiency that needs to be considered. In the salt I lock my drag so for all purposes from 0.0 lbs thru my maximum drag, I am fishing with a fixed line rod. I choose a rod to do the work for me. I fish an 11 foot rod to target fish to 40#. It is essentially a fish leashed to a spring. I feel the same goes with tenkara. When I have fought large fish with a 5m rod, they have given up far quicker and with less effort than with shorter rods, sometimes the advantage is laughable as it is significant.
It is true, if the objective is to winch in a fish a shorter lever is better as the fulcrum is biased to the angler. Tuna are often fought with short 6’ rods. I landed a 120# tuna in minutes with a short rod.
But as with anything these rules and ideas come down to application and technique as this video shows a pair of guys land a 300# class fish with a fixed line rod in under a minute, while a guy with a fancy flyrod/reel is getting spooled in the background…hahahaha. Pick your poision…
G, for sure there is a lot to be said for the advantages of having a longer spring. The action of the rod (soft vs stiff) is another important factor. Most anglers favor stiff tip casting type rods when fishing for big fish, believing they give you more control. But tippet protection is also very important and the added bend of a moderate action rod helps because the added rod bend shortens the lever length of the rod, and two-handed rods allow you to change the fulcrum position with greater safety. But in saltwater fishing, tippet strength is not as big an issue because the fish are not as leader shy as they tend to be in fresh water.
On occasion I fish with with Western Fly Fishermen out of Float Tubes, and in that situation a big fish will pull the fisherman around in the water. I have noticed the same thing your video shows - a fixed line rod will beat a good fish a lot quicker because the fish cannot take line out with out pulling you through the water. With a rod and reel, that fish takes line out at will and the angler has to wait till it stops to recover line then reel all that line back on the reel, which allows the fish to rest. And the fish may run a number of times, requiring many cranks of the reel to over come, just as in your video. Thank you for putting up the interesting video that does a fantastic job of illustrating the point we are making…Karl.
In general, not matter the discipline I find that most anglers have no idea on how much pressure they can put on their tackle or the fish. In general, I do not like fast action rods. I like moderate and moderat-fast. Fast action rods often require more from the angler to absorb the lunges and power of the fish. Power and action are two different things. A heavy powered medium action rod will make quick work of a fish and all the angler has to do is lean back and bring them in.