Sayfu, Got an idea. You are a pretty straight forward guy with a lot of experience. I'll mail you one of my rods to test and you can let us know what you think. Just mail it back when you are done. I am confident it will please your finicky nature. My fishing time has been limited and it's a shame they just sit in the rod locker.

Of course the best compliment will be if you do not send it back at all. :0)

Deeter, Our fly fishing club works through 4-H, Boy Scouts and Pheasants Forever to get kids interested in fly fishing. A Tenkara rod would be a welcomed addition to the clubs collection of teaching rods and would no doubt be touched my many little fingers over the course of a year. THANK YOU!

I am living proof your theory is true. Have been trying to get my two boys into fly fishing for years. They would spend 10 mins on the water with a fly rod then reach for the spin rod. I introduced them to Tenkara and I can't keep the rod out of their hands. Had to buy another one just so I had one to use.

Now that a I think about the boys and I have had some great times in the mountains Tenkara fishing we may otherwise never had.

Tell Paul his Tenkara rod is also deadly on bullfrogs.

Sayfu, I do not wholly disagree with you. But as to my argument, many of the fishermen I deal with, observe, and fish with are warmwater fishermen. I see my share of trout guys and granted line control and presentation are very important there, but for many bass and sunfish situations, basic casting can suffice. That is all I meant. Successful Tenkara fishermen have to worry about drift, shadows, and presentation same as the rest of us. I'm sticking to my guns, when teaching kids; simple is good.

I just got a 6'6" 4wt from Cabelas and put a little Ross San Miguel reel on it for my 8 year old...it's so fun, I take it when I hit the small streams around Telluride! I should try the Tankara meathod with the kids - just means I have to get another rod!

Ten-kara: from-heaven.

The rods are 11-13 feet long with a furled leader. Drops a fly on the water like... well, it fell from heaven.

One last comment on interesting youth on becoming good fly fishers.
Youngsters have great memories, they don't soon forget. They hvve excellent imaginations. I received my certification, and teaching degree by student teaching in kindergarten. I luv to bring out their imaginations, and do it all the time around young kids. But they do have short attention spans. It is, IMO, the skill of the adult that can bring out these attributes in young kids when we instruct them. Good teaching skills, make it exciting. And they will learn...not that hard to be a story teller, and have them visualize a fish coming to the surface, and taking their fly. You can even get them to enjoy putting the fish back, rather than wanting to keep everything. It is the skill of the adult, not the lacking on the kids part.

When we conduct fly fishing schools. that is the method we have used for years. Pinch down on the line, and get the rod hand action stroke down right, and then we move on to the rod, and line hand addressing what we then do with the line hand.

I read the line to be 11-13 ft!..not the rod for the kid. I'd say no. He can catch fish and have fun which is a biggie to get kids into the sport. But for any flyfishing value? I'd say start with a much shorter rod, and you can tape the line you want to use to the reel handle, and get the kids stroke arm working right. The action of the rod is important...a medium action, and not a real flexy, slow action that throws the line to the ground on the backcast...but it needs to flex. Load a heavier line on the rod. There is a young fellow in my town that has become a celebrity, and he started at 7rs. of age. His dad was a guide, worked for the local flyshop, and is a spey casting steelheader of note, and is a local information guru. He and his son are in the paper all the time. The son now spey casts as a middle schooler, and was the booth rep for St Croix Rods at our big Fly Tying EXPO. The kid started on a short rod, and moved up in length as he grew.

Buck if you want to sell one of the Tenkara I'll buy it, REALLY I'M INTERESTED. But not for a beginning kid.

Guess I'm not in the minority here that would rather just buy a fly rod instead of something the kid will outgrow.

On family fishing trips I would feel a lot more comfortable if youngsters were "playing" with inexpensive, 10', crappie rods to learn fly-fishing. I would not want them to "play" with my $200 - $400 rods without my supervision. Such an inexpensive rod is available commercially for under $10. That is not too expensive to give them a try if you have youngsters. The pan-fish rods telescope down to 28". You can fly-fish and/or bait-fish with them, just rig them a little differently as needed.

我最喜欢的是小家伙，他喜欢嬉戏和飞溅​​和充电大约

Don't know even what the word "Tenkara" stands for, but I assumed it WAS a fly rod with no reel seat, just a shorter rod. We used them indoors with yarn tied to the end to demonstrate the stroke and loop formation. I don't fish small streams..never was interested. I want bigger water that a fish can take off, and have room to fight in, I can boat in for the most part. We had some great steelheading in some small feeder streams near my home off of the main river....seldom ever fished them. I do too much walking, and not enough fishing. But, to each his own.

Oh, I can see that. That's the old English long rod method of "Dapping" Sure, a fish can bow against the give of the big rod. But how does a kid handle a 11-13 ft rod? No thanks, don't send one of yours, but thanks anyway. I'm recovering from a hip replacement, been out only once, our rivers are way too high to fish, and now everyone is crowded on the Henry's Fork of the Snake making that intolerable. I've got a new Loomis rod and a new reel along with a lot of new flies I've tied I'm dyin to use. ON top of that a lot of frustrated buddies that want to go that I have to try to work in, along with some in-laws that are coming to visit. Thanks for the offer. I'd definitely use one though for crappie, or perch fishing that I do in the Summer.