Triangulating Angling
I
Karin Miller
Photo Jessica Haydahl Richardson
’m not a math whiz or a wannabe physicist, but a few years ago, while reviewing video footage of myself engaged in a spirited skirmish with a beefy Seychelles bonefish, a geometric revelation occurred to me. As I edited the tape, reliving the heart-pounding moment frame by frame, I watched my rod and the angle my body made relative to it, and also to that of the bonefish. With the benefit of the camera footage allowing me an observer’s vantage point, I noticed there was a relationship between this temporary triad of angler, fish, and rod. Compared to the plethora of information on how to hook them, how to successfully land a trophy fish is rarely discussed in contemporary fly fishing literature—let alone how to do so with a Tenkara rod. That’s one reason I think the concept of what I’m endearingly calling “fish geometry” bears consideration. Another is to mitigate the chance of losing the fish of a lifetime. Although I would
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FlyFisher Winter 2022
suggest the fundamentals of my theory become more critical when you don’t have a reel to bail you out, the principles of the concept are the same for both Tenkara and traditional rod-and-reel fly fishing.
Trigonometry time As I studied each frame of that bonefish battle, I focused on three points: my rod tip, my body and the fish. Connecting those points in my mind’s eye, I realized they made a triangle. In some frames of the video the connected points made a right-angle triangle—that is, a triangle in which one of its three angles is 90 degrees. In other frames, the three points created an acute triangle, wherein each of the triangle’s angles is less than 90 degrees. And in still other parts of the footage, I could see the triangle that formed between me, the fish and my rod was that of an obtuse triangle, where one of its three angles was greater than 90 degrees.
