Donald,
Very entertaining and informative site.
Bill,
I got started with a South Bend Black Beauty crappie pole, bought at the local Walmart. To be honest, I caught a bunch of fish and had a fun time. I used a furled line and once I got the taper optimized, the rod cast and fished fine.
My first western fly rod (45 years ago) was a cheap piece of junk, I used a level, probably mismatched line and a $5 reel. I didn't know much about anything back then, and didn't care, I just fished and had a great time. It got me interested and gave me a feel for what it's all about. Nothing wrong with following a similar path to fixed lined fly fishing.
Tenkara rods are more refined, lighter and much more sensitive, but using a crappie pole will definitely give you a feel for it. If it helps, I have some pictures of how I first got started down at the bottom of this page -
http://fountainheadflyfish.webs.com/apps/blog/
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