... I'll go a bit further than Chris did.

There is no way using a 9' tapered leader with some tippet attached to the tip-top of a 9' fly rod compares to Tenkara. With the 9' fly rod approach, the rod will not load at all so basically you are using a "buggy whip" to get the fly to the water.

Now, I'm not satisfied that a Tenkara line really loads a Tenkara rod, and it may be that the movement of the rod alone is what accounts for the apparent loading, but casting a Tenkara rod is quite similar to casting a properly loaded conventional fly rod, and not at all a "buggy whip" experience.

The 9' fly rod experiment starts misleading the "experimenter" at the very outset, and just goes downhill from there. First, you miss the pleasure of casting a loaded rod, you will have less control over where that "buggy whipped" fly goes, your "reach" or effective fishing area will be greatly reduced by the shorter rod, control of the fly on the water will be less efficient, and feeling the fish on the line will be very different.

Not saying you can't effectively fish with a 9' tapered leader plus tippet attached to the tip-top of a 9' fly rod. Just that it will be such a different experience than using a Tenkara rod that it won't give you a clue whether you will enjoy fly angling with a Tenkara rod.

John