A bit OT as there's nothing to 'build' in the traditional sense. But still, quite intriguing. Up till a few days ago, I had no idea what they were called.

In my regular travels to the orient, I routinely see tackle stores that sell these long rods with a line tied to the end. I dismissed them as gimmicks and can't imagine these rods being productive in western waters. However, did a bit of reading online and see that it can often outproduce traditional fly rods and other methods on rivers and streams. There are even a few tournament results that seem to bear this out.

So out of curiosity, I picked up a few variety. These are remarkably light - I have a 15+ footer that is 3.4 oz. Have not fished it yet but figure I'd post something here to see if any rodbuilders have explored the Tenkaras.

Mo

Seems to me like you could dress them up with a nicer grip and maybe a little bit of decorative work in front of the grip. I don't think I'd like to hook into a 24"+ Brown with one on a river where he could get his shoulders behind a strong current, so they seem somewhat limited to small to medium sized fish. They do however seem unparalleled in achieving a drag-free drift accross varying currents.

I attended a Tenkara demonstration at The Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum in 2010.
One of the experts was a Neurologist from Japan who builds Tenkara rods from a single piece of bamboo.
This is no small task. It takes him about a year of searching to find a bamboo stalk that is long and straight
enough with all the right characteristics. Then comes the laborious work of reaming it and forming it into
a telescoping blank. Needless to say his work is exceptionally rare.

Another fellow there was starting a company out of San Francisco to promote and sell all things Tenkara here in the US.
I ran into him again a few weeks ago at the Somerset, NJ Fly Fishing Show.

It appears his company has taken root and starting to flourish. I don't recall his name and I misplaced his business card but
the name of the company is Tenkara USA. He is a very likable guy and very knowledgable about all things Tenkara.

[www.tenkarausa.com]

Lived in Japan for several years now, but never got into tenkara. Prefer having the option of having a drag and reel if I need it.

I fish Tenkara as well as more conventional fly rods. The Tenkara has it's place, smaller streams and rivers where you are most likely to catch trout up to about 14-15 inches. I have landed Browns up to 16-17 inches, but not easily.

It is amazingly easy to cast dry flies up to the extent of the reach of the line and rod, which in the case of a 15 foot rod, gives you about 30 feet. Not fun on brushy streams handling the long rod length!

It is catching on out here in California, our local fly shop just stated that Tenkare was their #1 selling rod in 2011!!

I've been doing tenkara for a litle over two years now and I'm in love with it. I intially got into it thinkning that the tenkara rod would just be a tool among many western rods. But the proof is in the pudding. Basically i just found myself reaching for the tenkara rod almost exclusively - it works for me so well that I found no need to use the western gear.

It's certainly not ideal for all waters and situations, but for the places that it is suited it is pretty hard to beat. Those places, for me are, small streams to small rivers. The most important feature being not too much overhead cover. You know those small brushy streams with "rhodedendron tunnels" ? Those are not the best - I'll do it there, but it is definitely not optimal.

I won't make any tenkara vs. western gear arguments, those can be fruitless and silly, but I'll say that tenkara can be an extremely effective way to fish. It is extremely easy to learn to cast. And make no mistake it is casting - not dapping.

I will say that as someone who has rolled a few graphite rods of my own - I do miss that. You can't get any blanks as far as I know.

the TenkaraUsa site is probably the best place to go for reliable info - and there is a very active forum there too. Also www.tenkaratalk.com and www.tenkarabum.com are great resources too.

As far as big fish go - you cand land them - but you do need to have some good old-fasioned skills. I've found that big fish on smaller waters are really not much of a problem, because they usually can't make a long initial run. On larger water though that initial run is the killer. If you can move with the fish a little, though and get to some slack water it can often be handled - that is if the initial run didn't break you off.