If you're just dapping the fly off the end of the rod and not casting, you're not really getting the most out of Tenkara. That said, there's all sorts of different ways you can do fixed line fishing, and what you mentioned is certainly effective. It's what one of my sons prefers in fact. He uses an 8' rod and about 6' of line and dangles artificials in front of the local sunfish.
But when it comes to ponds where there are no clearance issues, I use a rod from 3-6-5.4m rod. That's 12'-18' long. Since you don't want the line in the water, just the leader, you really can't fish all that far out if you're using shorter rods. A 6' rod means you're fishing about 7'-8' away. That's dang close
At any rate, when it comes to the Tenkara/Keiryu/Seiryu/Tanago fishing thing, I confess to having an addiction. I was out just the day before yesterday, giving the local redears and bluegills jaw aches using a Nissin Pro-Spec and some home made Japanese style flys. This afternoon, I'll head to another stream and see if I can fool some rainbows. Not sure why, but in this particular locale, the rainbows are just plain ugly. But they're trout at least.
