15

Toy Rods

When you go striper or steelhead fishing with Fred Jennings, the first thing you notice is that he catches way more fish, and bigger fish, than you do. If you watch him closely, you see that he casts farther than you do, with less false casting and with less apparent effort in general, even in the wind, and he muscles his fish in more efficiently and releases them more quickly than you do.

Then you notice his fly rod. It’s a six-foot, two-weight wand. A mere toy. And you wonder what this man is trying to prove.

He’s happy to talk about it.

WGT: Everybody knows that you need a long, stiff rod to fight big fish and bring them in before they—and you—are utterly exhausted. You seem to do fine—okay, you do great—with your baby rod, but couldn’t you fight and land your fish even better with a man-sized rod?

FJ: It seems to be an unquestioned assumption that the use of light tackle kills fish because one must baby them far too much. This is something I know to be wrong. The myth that one needs long stiff rods and heavy lines for big fish has been very destructive.

WGT: Huh? A myth? Destructive?

FJ: What people don’t seem to realize when they denigrate my use of light tackle because it “kills the fish” by playing them too long is that I land my fish faster than almost anyone else I fish with. What determines how hard you can pull on a fish has absolutely nothing to do with the weight of the line that you are hurling into the air. It has to do with tippet strength and the design of the rod.

WGT: So this short-rod stuff isn’t some romantic affectation?

FJ: No. It’s physics. When my 6-foot 2-weight rod is bent hard into a fish, for a given torque at my wrist (in foot-pounds), more than half of that goes to the line tension, because the “effective length” of my rod when bent that way is somewhat less than two feet. So for 20 foot-pounds, I am putting more than 10 pounds of tension on the line itself where it comes out of the rod tip going out to the fish. With the friction of the water, that is all one would ever want to exert, at least on a 15-pound tippet and a crashing fish, and that’s living dangerously. Understand?

WGT: Well, sort of. You’re saying a short rod is more efficient than a long one?

FJ: Absolutely. Consider the same situation with a 9 foot 8- weight rod. Here, an exertion of 20 foot-pounds at the lower end of the rod involves about 7 feet of rod in terms of “effective length” once bent, which yields less than one-third the tension at the rod tip on the line, namely just under 3 pounds of tension. So, to pull 10 pounds of tension at the rod tip (assuming 3 feet is lost to the bend with this heavier pull), one must exert 60 foot-pounds of torque at the handle instead of only 20. When I am fighting a very large fish, I pull as hard as my hand and arm strength allow, often with the reel braced against my forearm or my midriff. I am getting more tension for the amount of effort expended than someone with a long stiff rod. This means that I can bring a fish in faster due to better leverage than anyone with a long rod.

WGT: I’m not sure I followed all that, but it sounds impressive. It’s all about leverage, huh?

FJ: Leverage is a big part of it, sure. But when it comes to fighting big fish, the real advantage of a light short rod is its incredible sensitivity. You can feel every move a fish makes during a fight, and most especially on a big fish. You can feel what the fish is doing. You can tell when it’s about to run, and you can anticipate it and stop it by putting on some pressure at those moments. The big sticks don’t have anywhere near the sensitivity of my short light rods, nor are they anywhere near as much fun to fight a fish on.

WGT: I’ve seen how efficiently you land and release your fish after you get them in. You want me to believe the short rod helps here, too?

FJ: You bet. When landing a fish with the longer rods, you have almost no control of that fish. If you can use a net or a gaff and you tire the fish out enough, then you can control it because it’s exhausted. But the fish I bring in on my short rods are still green and agile when I release them.

WGT: There must be some technique to it.

FJ: Right. With a short rod, I bring in the line until I have only about two feet or less of leader left outside the rod tip, and then even a pretty wild fish can be controlled very well. The thing to remember is to extend your rod hand all the way out from your body. Otherwise you will “candy-cane” the rod and break it. That position allows you to bend the length of the short rod over your head, so the fish comes in on the other side of you under tight control. From here, run your hand down the leader either to the fly or to the lower jaw of the fish. Grabbing the line on big fish is a great mistake and will often cost you a fly.

WGT: Okay, but surely your baby rod seriously handicaps your casting. You don’t look that strong . . .

FJ: You’re right. My arms aren’t very strong. That’s precisely why I like short rods. They’re much easier to cast without getting tired. A very short rod gives you much higher line speed. The advantage is that you can use a lighter line in the wind and it moves faster through the air than it does with a longer rod. Short light rods cannot be powered through a cast. You need to use timing and grace, not power. I’m always surprised at how many people used to big long rods simply cannot cast at all with my short light ones. They try to power the rod and that just doesn’t work.

WGT: I have to admit that you seem to cast farther with your little wand than I do with my man-sized rod.

FJ: I am always surprised when I fish with people using long heavy rods and find that I am casting about 10–20 feet farther than they are. I would agree, however, that you can cast farther with long rods than you can with shorter ones if you don’t have much skill. The long rods are slower so the timing is not as critical. But, once you learn how to cast a light short rod, it is so much easier that, when you go back to the big rod, it just feels like a club.

WGT: Hm. Skill, huh?

FJ: I didn’t necessarily mean you. But if the shoe fits.

WGT: What about casting in the wind? Surely your flimsy little stick handicaps you there?

FJ: Au contraire. Casting into wind with long rods and heavy, fat-diameter lines puts more stress on your arm and requires more work. The longer the rod, the more slowly the line moves through the air, and heavy lines are more wind resistant. To beat a stiff wind, go short and use light lines. Also, when you cast short rods in the wind, the line is down nearer the water where the wind doesn’t blow as hard.

WGT: I notice you use a shooting head. How important is the way you rig up?

FJ: After a lot of trial and error, I’ve developed a rig that works beautifully with my short, light rods. I use a 30-foot shooting head, flat mono running line, and a ten-foot fifteen pound leader for stripers. I usually fish with weighted flies like Clousers. There are many advantages to this rig. The flat mono shoots like a dream When I get to the flyline in my retrieve I know it’s time to pick up and cast, and when I’m on my game I can throw a cast with only one false-cast, thus keeping my fly in the water for a maximum amount of time. Another nice feature of this rig is that it maximizes the amount of backing I can wind onto the small reels that balance the little rods.

WGT: Thanks for sharing your secrets.

FJ: I don’t have any secrets. I want people to understand. I’d like to debunk the conventional wisdom about big rods being better and more sportsmanlike. I really believe that folks will have more fun—and catch more fish—using short, light rods. This prejudice against these rods deprives anglers of a great deal of pleasure. I’ve seen the delight people get from fighting big fish on light rods again and again when I’ve put one of my outfits in their hands.