– how old is he?
12
– did he fish/flyfish before?
Yes but only with crank gear. This picture was taken 30 minutes after the first time he ever touched a fly rod of any style. I only had a few months head start on him.
– how long did it take him to figure out tenkara?
Three casts maybe. Where we were fishing and the fact we were fishing from shore and not wading, we needed a little more reach so he was using the slingshot method instead of a traditional Tenkara cast (whatever that's called).
Since you have a link to a tenkara store in your BPL profile, I'll assume that this isn't your first rodeo but I'll mention a couple observations about Tenkara fishing with kids for other people who may read this:
I stood near him and kept an eye on where the fly was in relationship to his body so that when he executed the slingshot cast, he wouldn't bury the hook into the back of his leg or whatever. After a handful of casts, he had it down and didn't need my constant supervision. Your kids may vary in either direction.
(steps on soapbox)
I fish with barbless hooks or crimp the barbs. I don't care to start a potential flame war or off topic conversation about catch and release but as someone who had to push a hook fully through my thumb to expose the barb, cut it off, and then pull the hook back through, I think it's important to do this around kids for safety reasons.
The ambulance company I worked for in NY was near Salmon River in Pulaski. Even if I didn't fish, I could always tell you when the salmon were running by the sheer volume of fishhook vs ear/eye/nipple/arm/etc calls so again, big fan of barbless hooks. I forget to do it every now, especially when I'm juggling four different kids at a fishing pond, but try to remember to flatten them as a general rule.
I also had him wear glasses as he was getting the hang of it.
