Nah.....he is not asking for what new reel to use. What a small......big world. I know what he is referring to. When I was 12 no one fished fly rods. I saved up coke bottles and turned them in for 2 cents deposit till I got $6.75 and bought a South Bend or Shakespear 6' fiberglass rod with an automatic reel. I had no clue how to fly fish. No books, relatives....nada. I taught myself how to fly fish. But didn't know techniques or knots or anything. THEFORE when I hooked a bluegill "I developed a figure eight way to retreive.....except I use the index finger and that well known middle one as one end and the pinky and it's neighbor as the other....AND I DID A FIGURE EIGHT line take in......because I didn't know any better!

He is asking HOW to take in line and land a fish.....using some other method than the only one he knows....his figure eight. I have never heard of it before till now. I thought it was my own dumb way of doing it because I didn't know how you were supposed to do it.

So this is too long already. He wants to know HOW to strip in line and land a fish....plain and simple. Either stripping it in and holding it with the reel hand while keeping a tight line....and reaching up and strippiing in more line and holding it again. OR....how to get and land a fish on the reel. He does not know how to do either.

He is simply asking how to normally catch and land a fish on a fly rod!

And one answer is no the figure eight will not work on bass. When they run AT you.....you will have absolutely no way whatsoever to take in line fast enought to keep a tight line. You need to learn the normal ways.

Wow, what a small world. And I thought I was the only one that ever did that.

Now someone else can now explain it to him.

Just FYI