Chris,
Have you tried a hera rod for catching bigger fish using tenkara style techniques? I have a inexpensive one I bought from allfishingbuy.com that would seem to fill the bill. Although it won't cast a fly using just tenkara line all I have to do to get it to work is add a strike indicator and I'm in business. Allfishingbuy has some Daiwa hera and koi rods that look interesting.
John here, the other Tenkara Guide in the video using an Amago. I was using 3.5 level line and 5X tippet. Properly executed fighting and landing techniques allow you to bring these hard pulling fish to the net. It is all about technique and not trying to over power the fish. My largest fish of the day was easily 6-6.5 pounds and 21 inches. It would have been a much easier fish to land with the Diawa Kiyose and 4X because you can put more leverage on the fish.Originally Posted by CM_Stewart
Note: I only lost one fish to broken tippet because I just simply tried to muscle the fish around. It was an experiment to see just how much pressure the Amago could put on the carp. It was not nearly as much control or power as the Kiyose. Erik had the advantage for fishing from the bank because of the amount of power the Diawa could put out. I was pretty much relegated to wading in some very smelly nasty water so I could walk my fish around to effectively fight them. If you watch our video closely in the first min or so you can clearly see me "walking my carp" to protect the tippet.
John
Tenkara Guides LLC
There was really only one part of the video I did not like. I also do not like to see anyone do it. The part is when fighting a fish, you use your free hand and touch the rod above the handle to try and help fight the fish. With tenkara it may not be much of a problem but any other gear it can spell disaster. When you do this you actually change the fulcrum point which in turn could cause your rod to break. You never want to grab a rod above the handle or where the end of the handle would be. Just wanted to give a warning to all that did not know this.
We don't "grab" the rod with the free hand. The grip is open, very light pressure of the fingers is used to control the direction of the tip of the rod. It may be hard to tell in the video, but the fingers are used by just lightly touching the rod with the fingers left open/loose (not clenched down on the rod). I learned this technique directly from Dr. Ishigaki as the proper method to control hard fighting fish. He cautioned me that this is a very advanced tenkara technique. After spending a week fishing with Eiji Yamakawa, Kyoshi Ishimura, Masami Tanaka, Dr. Hisao Ishigaki, Daniel Galhardo, and Masaki Nakano, I witnessed all of these tenkara anglers use this technique. Must be something to it or they wouldn't do it. That group of tenkara masters and anglers have pretty close to 130 years of combined tenkara experience.
That being said, I have had clients on guide trips break tenkara rods by hard gripping the rod with both hands. My 6 year old son broke his 11' Iwana on a 20 inch rainbow trout by reaching up and grabbing the rod above the grip with his free hand. He did however, dive on the broken rod sections being dragged off by the fish and continue to fight until the tippet broke off.
Just use caution if you find yourself in the situation where you need to use the other hand to help control the tip of the rod. Again, it is a very light touch not used to muscle the fish but to keep the tip of the rod in control. Also the rod Erik is using is 17' long. You need 2 hands to keep that much leverage under control and it takes 2 hands just to cast that rod.
P1010876-2.jpg Masaki Nakano 3rd generation tenkara angler in his family. 20+ years of tenkara experience.
Last edited by JohnnyV; 10-07-2012 at 09:38 PM.
I did see that it was just the fingers. Even this can be enough to change the fulcrum point and break the rod. I have built a couple rods and have done quite a bit of reading of building and this is one thing all builders warn people of. Just because the so called masters do this does not mean you will not break a rod. I am not saying you will break a rod if you do this but you do increase the chance of a break.
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I have seen and wiggled one of the hera rods but I have not fished with one. It seemed surprisingly stiff and I am not surprised that yours wouldn't cast a fly with a light tenkara line. Daiwa and Nissin both make poles (not quite the same as what I think of as "hera" rods with their teardrop grip) that are designed for carp - although relying on Google for translations is questionable. I wanted to try the Kiyose 53MF and maybe even the longer 63MF first because I think they will work and they both collapse to a convenient 21" length. The poles intended for carp only collapse to about 48" but I may have to get one in just to see what it is like. I had looked at the Daiwa "Liberty Club" but chose the Kiyose because it is much lighter weight and also has the added feature of the zoom capability.
I have had to use two hands before with larger fish on tenkara rods, but had both hands on the grip section rather than one on the gip and one higher up. I am sure that John is right about needing two hands to fight a carp with the 53MF Erik was using, although it might be safer to have both hands on the grip section rather than one on it and one on the next section up.
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