I’m in the school of “as long as generally useful on the stream I’m fishing.” The sub-6’6” specification works nicely to match one of my favorite rods, period, a 64p. So sweet on small covered streams, it’s put a couple of nice 6.5’ 3-5wts on the bench. Shorter, a Diamondglass 605 is nice, a Fenglass 535-2 is the shortest I have and a fun rod in general, and there’s a 5’6” that a member here built on a spinning blank. Those three are all 5wts; I have a CGR 359-3, but generally prefer a 12 dry (or even 10) that I can see quickly, and the CGR seems happier with a 16 or less. Big flies also help me from impaling too many 3-4 inchers.
What GA brookie streams do I use these on? None yer beeswax.
The one you’ve shown (which looks a little familiar) is pretty open and I’d be happy with a 7’ rod.
This favorite stream sees most of the above rods, but this is one of the more open pools and some of the tighter spots can be best with the Fenglass; since one such spot once produced a 9” brookie, it’s always a longer/shorter trade off.
A recent (first) trip to this other stream was with the Diamondglass; if I go back, it’ll be with the Fenglass. Open spot:
Productive spot:
This isn’t brook trout water, but a friend wanted to get introduced to it and I took the Fenglass
on the theory that I’d let him mostly fish the open spots and I’d concentrate on the rhododendron choked corners.
Open such as this:
There is another sub-6’6” glass rod, a Curt Gowdy 6’3” 6wt, but it doesn’t see tight trout water.