Bass on a Tenkara rod

I've watched many of the videos on fishing with a Tankara rod and have a question before I take the plunge. The large majority of my fishing is from a kayak for bass and large bream. Even when fishing for bream with my 3wt rod, it is not unusual for me to hook into a nice 17-18+ inch bass. When that happens, I let the bass make it's usual 1 or 2 longer runs before really playing it in to land it. How can you handle a run like this with a Tankara rod? I realize that the rod is longer and takes much of the fight, but even then with a 4 lb tippet, I'd be afraid that I'd lose most of the larger bass. Your thoughts...

Jim Smith

Jim, just get a hera rod. It's very similar to the tenkara, but built for bigger fish. I have landed 5-6# channel cats on mine. They can easily handle a largemouth. Here's a guy using one to catch carp:

http://www.allfishingbuy.com/Castomers-Helpful-Tips.html

I don't think you will need a hera rod for the occasional big bass. A "stiffer" tenkara rod like the Tenkara USA Amago or Yamame with appropriate tippet should perform just fine. You would be surprised how big of a fish you can land without a reel.

I have a Tenkara Amago 13 1/2 ft and I have landed a 24in Bow in the Madison with it. I have not tried to fish bass with it but there are several on Tenkara USA's site that fish for bass a lot. There is one fellow in HI that fishes for peacock bass quite often.

If you're worried about the bass breaking the tippet you might bump the tippet up to 6 lb. test. I use a tippet that strong on my tenkara rods all the time and so far haven't run into a problem.
I have landed a few decent sized bass on my tenkara rods with no worries.

I think you would be surprised at the ability of a tenkara rod to stop a fish's run by gradually increasing the resistance. If you chose a much stiffer rod to handle occasional large bass (many of which you could land with a tenkara rod anyway) you might get a lot less enjoyment from the bream and average sized bass. In addition to the rods goneflyfishing and narcodog suggested, you might want to also look at a Daiwa LT39SF. It is a little shorter than the Amago at about 13' but noticeably lighter and the center of gravity is closer to the grip, which reduces swingweight. If you use 6 lb test tippet and check your tippet frequently for abrasion, I doubt many bass will break you off.

Thank you all for your input and suggestions. After some additional research and more consideration of some of the other opportunities I will have to enjoy this type of fishing, I ended up purchasing the Tenkara Amago 13ft 6in rod. There are many days that even though I am using size 10 leeches, I end up catching mainly bass and very few bream. Also, the lake I live on gets very little fishing pressure and almost nobody targets the bream. That has resulted in a very healthy population of large bream, especially Redear sunfish. It is not unusual for me to catch 25 or 30 fish in a couple hours of fishing in the evenings with at least 5-6 of these beauties ranging from 11 - 14 inches long. I may be catching the same fish everytime I go out, but they always put up a great fight. I'm really looking forward to this new adventure in fly fishing and I'm sure I'll be back asking for more advise and guidance.

Thanks again and have a great fishing season.

Jim Smith
Conyers, GA