Tenkara

[jeepster]

I want a tankara rod really bad. It just looks amazingly simple, elegant, and zen, it has zen mentality just written all over it.

I don't have 200+$ for anything right now.

What I do have time for is some tinkering a few hours after work.

Who is to say I couldn't build a telescoping tenkara rod out of unsplit bamboo? It is sure cheap enough...

I figure I would do three 3 foot sections of bamboo, and snag the 4 foot tip out of my telescoping crappie rod....

Anybody ever try this?

[Bullkllr]

I haven't tried it, but have read quite a bit on Tenkara style fishing and I agree it sounds so appealing I want to try it.

I also think $200 + for a rod seems a little crazy. Are they that expensive because of the telescoping feature?

I think about it this way: when I fish small water with a short line off a standard fly rod & reel, aren't I doing basically the same thing? Yeah, it would be nice to have a few more feet of reach I guess. I could lose the reel and wrap the line around some kind of holder to make it more authentic.

If portability is important- I'm just getting a pack rod.

[pd]

Jeepster, I have one, and fished it a bit when I lived in Japan.  Although you would think Tenkara and traditional fly fishing are very similar, in my opinion they are not.  Firstly, Tenkara fishermen use bait a lot more than you would expect.  Secondly, the use of flies is mainly sub-surface (like a lure, or a nymph, even though they are tied like flies).  Thirdly, not only is the casting technique completely different, the approach to a pool or your targeted water is much more "vertical" than "horizontal" as it is in fly fishing.

Could you make a Tenkara rod from bamboo???  Sure, anything is possible.  But Tenkara rods (basically, just a telescoping rod) are not that expensive.

The 2 really great things about a Tenkara rod are the simply nature of the line, and the fact that they are extremely portable.  (No reel is also a plus.)

[fly-by]

Jeepster-

One of the biggest appeals of Tenakara is the simplicity.  You definitely don't need to drop $200 on a rod that you will use to cast 20 feet.  3 feet of reach, an 11 foot rod, a 10 foot line, and some leader will cover a surprising amount of water.   I spent a semester in Japan and had some exposure to Tenkara.  I use it for small creeks and to teach my kids the basics of flyfishing.
   
I would recommend the Caddis 330 from these guys:  http://tenkaraflyfish.webs.com/tenkararods.htm.  I own a couple of them.  Nice slow action, durable, and inexpensive. 

Attached is a photo of my daughter with a Daiwa Iwana. These are so light they don't even have a cork grip. Just a textured area on the butt section.

[Bmcox86]

Jeepster I just picked up a tenkara set up on backcountry.com for 103. Made by wetfly, seems solid but I won't get to use it till next week. I will report back when I try it, I figured I'd pick one up so I didn't have a reason to not have a rod on any given hike. To be honest though it's pretty similar to the bream buster I had when I lived in the south that you can pick up for $5

[pd]

Jeepster, see this article.
http://www.journalofmountainhunting.com/mountain-life---tenkara.html

The author captures well the modern Tenkara scene in Japan.  It truly is a combination of waterfall climbing, pool swimming, and brush busting.