I hope this is the right place to discuss this issue. I have kept my mouth shut on TenkaraUSA for several reasons: 1) I feel a deep personal self-imposed moral obligation to Daniel via CM Stewart for they introduced me to this type of fly fishing and I am very,very greatful 2) Daniel has spent a lot of time, effort, and money in developing a sucessful import business introducing a new kind of small stream fly fishing to most Americans and most others outside of Japan. I don't think it appropriate to walk into a flyshop and stand at the counter in front of the proprietor and tell his customers about someone elses competing products down the street 3) Daniel thus far has tried to keep TenkaraUSA products and techniques pure, simple, and dedicated to the kind of smallstream fishing it was derived from 4) though similar in many respects pole fishing is more general in nature and more adaptable to other traditional forms of pole fishing.
That said, let me start by saying that I have one TenkaraUSA rod : the 13' Ayu 5:5 and one Hane 9'10" Tenkara rod developed in a co-effort between TenkaraUSA.com and Backpackinglight.com for customers of Backpackinglight.com. I also have 3 rods from Igor (another importer of largely Japanese designed carbon rods that are made in China) of allfishingbuy.com and two other telescoping carbon poles purchased on eBay.com from yet another importer. The latter were very inexpensive and have not been tested yet but they are very similar to all the other poles including those of TenkaraUSA. I have the folowing poles/rods from Allfishingbuy: the carbon pole #Pole-A1-53-1-3608 (12 footer); the Hera #Hera-B1-914-2-3604 (12 footer); and the Hera #Hera-B1-905-2-6306 (21 footer). I purchased the first to compare it to TenkaraUSA rods and was pleasantly surprised. It appears to be of similar quality but does not have a cork handle. I used as is at first but have since wrapped a handle out of emergency plumbing tape (the kind that stretches and bonds to itself). This rod is a much faster action than my Ayu (most of the flex is in the top 2 or 3 sections and my guess is that it is an 8:2) in action. It has plenty of backbone and lifting power so that I can lift palm sized bluegill and smaller bass (say 12 inchers) over the tops of pondside cattails. It will probably take over my Ayu for most pond fishing for bluegill and other sunfishes and the occasional bass because of its increased lifting strength. I have cast level lines of 15 to 17lb mono or fluorocarbon as well as hand tied tapered mono leaders, 10ft bonefish furled leaders testing at 12lbs at the tippet end, floating light level 3 wt fly lines, etc. They all work effectively in different conditions. This rod will handle larger and heavier poppers and flies than my Ayu. If you go to the "Castomers Catch Gallery" at allfishingbuy.com there is a picture of me with a 21" puppy drum/redfish that I caught with my 12 foot Hera rod on an 11' tapered mono leader starting at 30lb and ending in 12lb Maxima Chameleon with about 4' of 10lb Maxima Chameleon tippet. I was using a 1/8 oz leadhead jig that I had tied like a chartreuse woolly bugger. The rod had no problem with this fish though I did not lift it out of the water as my nephew netted it for me. I also taped on a handle on this rod. I have also landed schoolie stripers of about 20'' with this rod underneath a bridge at night. If I had it to do over I would have gotten a 15 footer instead of the 12 footer for these light saltwater applications. This rod probably has more like a 9:1 action and the cast is more of a "chuck and duck." My other Hera is the longest offered at 21 feet. I purchased it for big river fishing for bull trout and steelhead and off the beach saltwater fishing. I may take it to some bigger freshwater bass waters. I have made up several different lines including taking a thinner fast sinking shooting head I used on my 8wt and cutting it down to 20 feet and then adding about 6 feet of 12 to 15lb tippet. With this combo I went down to my favorite Chesapeake Bay inlet one night and landed 4 stripers to 22 inches right off the beach. This is not a trout rod but will fling out big flies like 2/0 Clousers into the wind. It is a two handed rod and with lighter flies a spey cast works great. The handle is large enough not to need building up and has some kind of non slip coating. I think Igor's rods are great and I suspect his Tenkara rods will be the blue collar version of TenkaraUSA.
Igor told me he will put pricing on his site for his first offering of Tenkara rods when his first shipment comes in from Shimano. I asked him about the funky looking metal sleeve attaching the lillian (string) to the end of the Tenkara rods and he was assured by Shimano that they work fine and do not increase the chances for tip breakage.
Igor is very honest and accomodating and will replace broken sections at cost plus at about the same rate as Daniel but he does not keep a big inventory so you have to wait on him to order the replacement part. He just sells too many kinds and styles and lengths of rods to maintain a parts inventory. I tested this when I broke a rod tip in the dark one night in some brush. I think his rods are very reasonable and his service great. I feel the same way about Daniel at TenkaraUSA.
I will probably have another TenkaraUSA rod or two and will probably have more from Allfishingbuy as well. Telescopic pole fishing is very addictive whether its small stream Tenkara fishing or pole fishing in the surf, lake or big river. I think for now now both Daniel and Igor are filling the void, but I suspect that others will join the fray as this concept catches on in this country and becomes more mainstream. This is not just a passing fad.
Randy