Reaction of the uninitiated

I've shown my Tenkara set-ups to a number of fly fishermen lately, and it seems the more skilled and knowledgeable they are, the more interested they are in Tenkara.

I have a friend who writes for an outdoors magazine. I asked him if he would like me to bring him a spare rod and he instantly said yes, and made plans for us to hit a small river for a demonstration. We all caught a few fish on dry flies, then he set it up with a nymph. "Man, this is one damn fine nymphing rod!" was his reaction as he pulled out two more fish.

I showed it to another friend who grew up owning a fishing resort in Colorado. "I'm ordering one of these tomorrow!"

I then went fishing with a guy who claims all he likes to catch is small trout on dry flies. His reaction was that everything about the rod, from the price to the length, was all wrong. I caught and released over 50 small trout, all on a dry fly, and he still showed disdain for the rod. Of course, he couldn't tell a brookie from a brownie.....

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten” - Benjamin Franklin

"Be sure in casting, that your fly fall first into the water, for if the line fall first, it scares or frightens the fish..." -
Col. Robert Venables 1662

As age slows my pace, I will become more like the heron.

We've all had situations where seriously chewed up flies kept catching fish after fish after fish. It is no sin to tie flies that come off the vise looking seriously chewed up.