Current favorite is an FET taper 7 1/2' 3/4wt 3/2 by D. VanBurgel. Magic in the hand with a lovely soft tip that allows a battle with a 9"er or can
handle the big ones. On a small stream I find myself in the extended arm/rod reach mode most of the time to prevent the short amount of line out the tip from
touching the little waterfall/riffle in front of my position that will drag my dry out of the soft water its in upstream hole. After reading my first book by
Todd Hosman where he describes some Eastern fishermen on his guided trip with their 6' to 7' rods in our Rocky Mt. National Park not being able to
entice a fish to take, he finally talked them into something like an 8' 3/4wt and things changed quickly for the better, I knew of what he was writing
about.
I have only envisioned the kind of canopy somewhere that my 7 1/2' rod would absolutely not work in. Out here in the West its more a matter of having the skill to not put it into one of the trees or streamside bushes that are everywhere and pretty much anything will work and usually the longer the better.
I too have owned at least 1/2 dozen of the newer Scott glass rods and IMHO consider them to be on the FAST side for glass rods. If you ever run into an Axisco Arrite 7 1/2' 3wt 6pc glass rod try it. It is so close to my lovely FET taper rod that lovers of slower actions with max feel and flex should get a big kick out of it. I did keep one of the older Scott glass rods from the 70's in the 8' 5pc and it is soft and sweet.
I no longer own anything shorter than 7 1/2' but have enjoyed many. If I can cast a 9' 8wt graphite all week in Canada for Pike without runnin out of puddin, surely I can make the extra effort required to piddle for trout with a 7 1/2' rod that performs better than anything shorter can possibly accomplish. So unless you are in one of those canopy's I have never seen, I think the longer rod will serve you very well. Just get one with a softer action so it will really bend with a 9" fish on.
I do like the reduced effort required to cast a shorter rod on a larger stream where you can do in air line mends to get the job done but its pretty rare that the longer 7 1/2' rod or even longer will not do a better job.
Marshall
I have only envisioned the kind of canopy somewhere that my 7 1/2' rod would absolutely not work in. Out here in the West its more a matter of having the skill to not put it into one of the trees or streamside bushes that are everywhere and pretty much anything will work and usually the longer the better.
I too have owned at least 1/2 dozen of the newer Scott glass rods and IMHO consider them to be on the FAST side for glass rods. If you ever run into an Axisco Arrite 7 1/2' 3wt 6pc glass rod try it. It is so close to my lovely FET taper rod that lovers of slower actions with max feel and flex should get a big kick out of it. I did keep one of the older Scott glass rods from the 70's in the 8' 5pc and it is soft and sweet.
I no longer own anything shorter than 7 1/2' but have enjoyed many. If I can cast a 9' 8wt graphite all week in Canada for Pike without runnin out of puddin, surely I can make the extra effort required to piddle for trout with a 7 1/2' rod that performs better than anything shorter can possibly accomplish. So unless you are in one of those canopy's I have never seen, I think the longer rod will serve you very well. Just get one with a softer action so it will really bend with a 9" fish on.
I do like the reduced effort required to cast a shorter rod on a larger stream where you can do in air line mends to get the job done but its pretty rare that the longer 7 1/2' rod or even longer will not do a better job.
Marshall
