So when trying to land a big fish without a net using a fly rod, I have some experience with tarpon and having broken a few rods myself. When I go to land tarpon with the fly rod, you bring them to the boat as close as you can, hold the fly line down with a finger, strip off some line off the fly reel. In one maneuver, release the fly line with the finger while raising your rod tip straight up. The line outside the tip will come towards you (with a little slack, so it is not perfect) and then you can grab the line and land the fish like you had been doing. One thing to also do while fly fishing is to check the connections between the ferrules to make sure they haven’t come loose while false casting. When this happens, that can also cause a rod to break while fighting. I do like the suggestions the others have made about two handed stripping,double hauling, a stripping basket and a sink tip line, but you got it done with what you had! You can work on those other things at your leisure.
Hey, John. If you hold the rod up towards the first eye, it will break more easily. Same as a spinning rod just a lot more feagile. Fly fishing from the boat puts a lot of strain as you're high off the water so the rod doubling on itself is accentuated. A net will help a lot as you can lift the handle high, net the fish, take three pulls off the reel, then lay the rod down. I line the fish as you did, but you just need to be careful when boating the fish. Thanks for the videos. Excellent stuff.
My pleasure. I've broken one on albies in the tuna spiral right under the hull. Easy to do! Great work getting these fish on the fly -- it's such wonderful sport. Thanks again for your videos. I really appreciate then. Learned a lot from you when I first got to the states.
I remember hearing quite a few fly rods snapping around me while fishing for false Albacore off the point in Montauk. This year I’ll be trying it in my PDL kayak so it should be interesting .
Good reminder about high-sticking! It's crazy how pricey rods can be so delicate. Years ago when i went from a $30 rod to a St Croix it snapped on me right away, i was like WHAT. THE. HELL. Granted , it was a Mojo and lots of people had that issue. But still.
My 2 Mojo have been through hell and back with me and held up the best. Bought a green heavy action inshore and snapped the first day. They sent me a 7”6 legends tournament as an apology. I won’t go with any other company, they’ve done other things for me too over the years
@@benedettogee They replaced the piece that broke for me, so no complaints. Pretty sure there was a bad batch that year. I also had a lot to learn about being careful casting the max recommended weight.
Yes John bring hand up the rod taken some pressure off the tip helps and having slack line off the reel and when you grab the leader release line you have pinch between rod and hand also four to five feet of straight 40lb leader is all you need in that situation with a loop knot
you're doing fine. As others have said below, look at some videos of the "double haul", you'll get lots more distance, very important at the beach. If you think you need more speed, use the double-handed strip retrieve, strip set! Bam! Contact the mfr. of the 10 weight and I'm sure they will set you up with a new rod or replacement section at little or no cost.
John, if you need to strip very fast, you tuck the rod under your arm and use BOTH hands to strip. This is helped with a stripping basket, but it's not mandatory. Sorry to hear about your fly fishing struggles.
Hi Peter! I was 2-hand stripping on the two hookups. I remain thankful for those flies you sent last year. That's what I caught my big wading blues on. Their remains are still in front of me on my desk.
The fl;y rod as loses lifting & drag power when you raise it past 45 degrees . hold the fly line itself and have someone else pull on the rod at 45 degrees then have them "high stick it" and you'll see there is very little power behind it when the rod is higher than 45 degrees and is susceptible to breaking.
Don't feel bad. I'm an experienced fly fisherman and I have broken rods while trying to boat bluefish on a 9 foot rod fishing solo. I even bought a long handle net to help, but that isn't easy to manage either. I've been playing around with building custom, 1 piece, short stick rods for boat use specifically to avoid this problem.. My advice; bring a buddy to help you boat the fish when using the fly rod 😉
John, tuck ( the next ) rod under your arm and use two hands to strip in the line. Much faster, and “strip set” the hook by pulling back hard on the line with the rod pointed at the fish. Keep it up!
When you mentioned your friend saying put it on the reel, I can tell you that’s the best advice. It’s important when you hook a decent fish. Too often I see RU-vid fly fishing videos where anglers try to play large fish and there’s loose line jumbled around at their feet. I’ve lost many fish this way. Good fly reels , have good drags , that’s what makes a good reel as I’m sure you know. I think that there is a popular belief or some other reason anglers try to hand peel line, but I’ve never understood it, and I see many people doing it and I don’t know why ? Anybody know ? Another big GOTCHA is not occasionally checking the drag on a fly reel. If you spend the morning hand peeling without freeing up the drag it’s going to be a problem. The drag tends to stick if you don’t pull it once in awhile. If you hook a fish that has a big first run, when the free line hits the drag, game over. I set the drag a little light. Playing fish you add a little by palming if required, increase reel drag if necessary.
Use less arm and more forearm like cracking a whip. Let the line lay out in front and behind so it loads the tip. Important with higher weight rods. Hard to maintain technique when fish show. But definitely improving.
A few people mentioned a net. Other than fluke (flounder), I rarely net fish. That said, I won't hesitate in the future if I have something sizeable on a flyrod.
Hey John how about doing a video about the elusive 3lb. Winter flounder.do they still exist? We caught them years ago fishing for open bottom cod off block island. There's no better eating fish than winter flounder!
John The red rod is rated for 18oz-1oz. And you jigging with a 2 3/4oz jig. How do you relate the ounce rating on the rod to the lure you are using? Thanks
Need to learn how to haul properly…and eventually double haul. It will make fly fishing 1000% easier and more effective. Really not that difficult either
Hey John. Im the guy you helped out in the Red Lund yesterday. Just wanted to say thank you for passing me those bolt cutters. Literall lifesaver! I ended up having to go to urgent care to get the treble hook out of my ear but at least i got the plug off my face! Not before i went back to the rips and caught a 25 pound bass!!
You're welcome! I've had two emergency room visits for similar incidents in my life, so I know what it's like. BTW, I had a 1965 16-ft Lund for many years. When you went back to the rip, did you get them topwater?
noticed that you have a lot of slack in the line between the bottom ring and your stripping hand when you're casting. pull down slightly as you start to shoot the tip, this will help your distance especially into the wind!
Watching you get frustrated while fly fishing due to lack of fish cooperation brings back great memories of an Uncle of mine. Tuck that rod under your right arm and use both hands to strip like crazy - a stripping basket may help manage the line but your boat is open and clean so it can lay nicely on the deck - your casting is just fine
When fishing salt water with a fly rod, you set the hook by continuing to strip. You don't need to raise the rod. You don't want to lift the tip. Just strip until you feel the weight of the fish on the line.
there are a lot of good fly rods for much lower prices, but you do give up some features. The line is really where you want your money to go, I run a 10wt for larger saltwater fish and my line cost 1.5x what the rod did, still under $450 though xD
Hi John.... Love your videos and all the information that you share. In all honesty, this is the second time I've watched you fly fish in the past couple weeks. Frankly, I'm sorry to say that I find it boring. I might be in the minority, but I'm sorry I just lose interest watching you cast and strip line. Ironically, I LOVE CASTING (cast further than most and want to learn fly fishing. Thanks for the content! Laura
I can't imagine how many weakfish we would have caught back in the '70s if we had today's technology, fish finders, spot lock, etc. Back then we used landmarks, buoys, etc. to get on spots as best we could, and fished blind, drifting around different areas until we found fish. A lot of time wasted!
xD fly rodders are 10x saltier than your average joe with a spinning setup, you've obviously never been out with anything but those cunty lodge trout guys
I hear those Terns working in the background. Someone once told me, you can judge the size of the fish, by size of birds working. Is that true Mr. Skinner?
I broke a fly rod on a salmon a couple years ago doing the same thing you did. I'm no beginner, but when I made that rookie mistake, I instantly knew what I had done and that cringe feeling went up my spine (Lol). When you're in the boat, hand line them in when they get close and use a landing net.
Knucklehead from Madriver outfitters, help with the getting the fingers smacked by the reel handle. There are also Tibor and dannielsson reels with anti reverse so you don't do that. Going to spend more than that Greys I believe your using. May want to try some SA titan sink tip, but a slower sink rate. Leader about 3-5' when contact fishing really do a two segment taper. With sinking line you can really feel the rod load so it can help with timing the cast, also it's less work, roll cast pickup, back haul, forward hall, shoot. Downside is you find you'll want certain lines for certain retrieves and flys 😂, them you need more spool or reels or just combos. Fix the high stick becuse the rods are longer what works with a 7'rod doesn't with a 9-10' rod single hook, use a net. I think you just defaulted to holding the rod like you have for years and on the first fish you thought about it more. More expensive rods can be more "brittle" but they have other attributes that are beneficial. Could buy loomis nrx+ inshore rods, there are dedicated japanese jdm jigging rods that are in that 400-1k to class. But like everything else the diminishing returns are massive. TFO mangrove coast, axiom II, echo boost good to great "budget" salt rods
Not sure of you will see this . Stop quick on your backstroke and let the rod load while pulling line to your left pocket. Also when fishing salt especially blues /bass short leader is fine especially with a depth charge line. Appreciate you
Ahhh, the famous architect. I've had aluminum 16-footers all my life, but they mostly stopped making boats like this in the mid-80s. I'd look somewhere between a 16-ft Duranautic (aluminum) and something like an 18-ft parker (glass).
To get a much faster strip, John, Put the rod/reel under your right arm and strip with both hands. And yes a five and sometimes 3 foot leader for wet fly and fast retrieve. You're getting better every time. The hook set is a Strip and Strike and a repeat strike is ok. You may have KNICKED the tip section and caused a weak spot otherwise that should Not have happened. Fly rods usually bend as you expected, without breaking.
Thanks for the advice! I was two-hand striping on the two hookups. Several have commented that the rod shouldn't have broken, but I'll be WAY more careful in the future.
