Request: looking for reorientation and advice-
TLDR: Originally started with tenkara ~12 years ago, fished a lot then moved and didn’t use it, so got rid of my rod maybe 10 years ago. What’s new, what’s different, looks like things have really grown?
I originally started with a Tenkara USA rod ~12 years ago. I think it was the Iwana. Where I lived at the time had a bunch of streams that were perfect for it, had some great times with it. I was a big fan of Masami Sakakibara “Tenkara No Oni”, his style of fishing and in particular his flies, especially the Oni Kebari.
I evenetually moved and wound up working for a fly fishing company for some time, and went back to fishing typical conventional fly tackle and didn’t use my tenkara set up much, so I got rid of it. I basically have stuck my head in the conventional fly and Spey casting world since.
I’ve moved again and now have streams that would be ideal for tenkara. I’m looking around at rods and am a little amazed by how much it’s grown! Is level line still the main go to? Looks like a ton of companies are pushing furled lines? I’ve looked at Tenkara USA rods, are they still decent? It looks like the availability of Japanese rods in the US has improved greatly with Nissin rods on Amazon, and Oni’s rods in other places- any recommendations? There are also a ton of these Eufeng, Maxcatch, and Advintek rods on Amazon that don’t look half bad and are crazy cheap?! How are they?