Ultralight Tenkara Fly Fishing

I recently became hooked on the idea of getting a Tenkara rod after I had been searching the internet for ultralight fly fishing gear options. I really liked the minimalist idea of presenting fly patterns on a fixed line with no moving parts, low tangle rates, with lightweight collapsing rods. I found a 14 piece rod at a reasonable price on the Internet and within two weeks it arrived at my house in a little brown box. Free shipping even! I had ordered a 9 foot rod but upon opening and extending each section, I found that the rod was much...much longer than 9 feet. This was something I was originally not stoked about. I had ordered a nine foot rod to more easily fish some of the brushy, small creeks in my local area or any small waters I may encounter on an outing. 14 feet would be a little more of a pain to handle squeezed in between creeks heavily lined with salmonberry, alder, etc... The rod came in at 16 inches collapsed and 7.57 oz altogether, making it great for backpacking and everyday storage in my backpack to fish wherever I may be. I finally got a chance to fish with my new tenkara rod and I really like it so far. The concept is so simple and the setup is so fast that it was perfect to stash in my backpack while exploring beaver ponds, but I could set the entire rod up and be ready to fish in about a minute. This is something I really enjoyed because I personally hate stringing up my 5 piece fly rod in between use on trips. The fourteen foot length turned out to be perfect for the waters I have fished so far. It gave me a long reach to make casts up to 30 feet after I attached my home made tapered tenkara line to the end. I will be doing a full tutorial on DIY tenkara line in the future but to put it simply, I created a furled leader with a sort of shooting head with different sizes of monofilament that tapers for great casting turnover. The line I created for my tenkara rod is 17 feet long with furled loops on each end to make attaching the line and leaders to the line quick and easy. I can then attach as much tippet material on the end of the furled line as I need. The length of the rod made it great for a little spring creek in Eastern Washington that was lined with 5 foot high vegetation. I easily threw flies at hungry brook trout and the fight on a tenkara fly rod is a great deal of fun. I still don't know what you should do if you hook a huge fish that wants to run, besides kick off your shoes and jump in after it, rod in teeth. I am going to be ordering a few more rods in different sizes to see what else this style of fly fishing has to offer.