I walked into a local fly shop over the winter, and the owner had just finished buying a Tenkara rod from one of his customers. I looked it over and so did a friend of mine. We both decided it might be fun to try and if nothing else raise the hackles of some of the more traditional fly fishers on the Ridley Creek FFO stretch. The only catch was that a genuine Tenkara rod cost about $200 U.S. A week later I came back and took a closer look at the rod. It actually reminded me of the old cane poles the locals used for crappie when I was in college only more high tech made out graphite and collapsible. The 14 ft rod was 24 inches long when collapsed. I checked out my Cabela's and Bass Pro catalogs, and they had high tech crappie poles made out of graphite, in fact they looked an a lot like that Tenkara rod. I ordered myself a 12 ft one, for the grand sum of $20, used an old fly line to make the shorter line and my friend tied me up a dozen Tenkara flies. Never did get around to using the rod, but the flies worked great for panfish.
