In my experience, it's is so difficult to find a short (<7') and light (#2/3) fiberglass fly rod whose taper is properly designed for casting *short* distances with delicacy, accuracy, and feel. It seems that as fiberglass tapers get in the 6'6" and shorter range, the actions get faster, and often we "overline" these rods to try and obtain some of that good, flexy "feel" for short-rage casts of 10'-25'.

My ideal brook trout rod would be a progressive-taper 3wt. able to cast about 5' of line plus leader, with excellent feel. The rod should *load* with only this short amount of line out. To accomplish this, if the taper has to be designed so that it really peters-out at 30', so be it! (I *never* makes casts this long on the streams I would fish such a rod on, anyway...).

So, what are your favorites?
(overlining 3wt rods with #4 lines doesn't count)

I have three - but none are perfect:
(besides these 3, I've owned and tried probably close to a dozen others and discarded them - none of these cast/loaded well in-close)

6'4" 3/1 #2/3 CFF/F.A.I.S. Right Staff (custom)
Just acquired this one yesterday, and have only lawn-cast it so far.
Doesn't load well enough with a #2 at short distances. With a #3 line it's really nice.
Needs about 10' of line plus leader to get "good".
Casts reasonably well and controlled out to about 35'-40' and then peters-out.

6'3" 3/1 #3 McFarland 'Yellow Glass' (custom)
This is a wonderfully delicate rod with a light tip.
Although, it likes at least 10' of line plus leader out before it gets "good".
Casts reasonably well and controlled out to about 35'-40' and then peters-out.

5'9" 3/1 #3 Tiemco 'Bushmaster'
This really has been my 'go-to' Brookie rod for the past 2 years.
It's nimble and has good feel.
Loads ok with my 5' of line plus leader criteria, but is a faster taper than the two above.
This one also can make 40' casts, but why?

One rod that has always interested me is the older spigot-ferruled Lamiglas honey 6'6" 3pc blanks.
I hear these rods are quite soft, and cast *really well* at short distances.
Can anyone confirm?

Another is Barclay's paras. I've cast one recently (a black 4pc blank...), and it really felt pretty nice, although I'm not sure if it was the 64p or the 70p, or if it was the #3 or #4 taper. Based upon Chris' forum posts, he is a true "small water" connoisseur, so it didn't surprise me that this rod was 'dialed-in".

Thanks.

Ah, yes - I remember.
Been meaning to try and get my hands on a 2nd gen re-designed rod sometime to try,
at a gathering or somesuch...

yes! I've seen several limited runs or one-offs of custom short rods that include NS ferrules.
Presumably to purposefully add mass to the rod, and help with "Self-loading".

I agree with this concept.
The very best short rods I've handled are quite heavy compared to other rods of similar length/lineweight.
Part of the reason why I like 3pc vs 2pc rods, in general, but especially for short rods.
I have a 5pc Tiemco Fenwick that is a dream. (7'0" 'Little Yellow' model, but I still overline it with a 4wt.)

One of my favorites is my Steffen 6ft 2/3 2pc. As far as I am aware, it is the first production model of that blank. It loads with just a few feet of line out but you can toss 30 feet of line out if needed quite easily. We were driving through Flagstaff on a visit to the Grand Canyon and I decided to stop and see if I could visit the Steffen shop. Was warmly greeted by both Mark and Tim and I asked about whether they planned on reintroducing 6’ 2/3 wt. They let me handle a fully built 2pc prototype but said they hadn’t yet made the decision to produce it. I let them know I would be interested in a blank and about a month later got an email from Mark telling they had one available. Took it down to Aurelio’s last year and we both decided it casts the same as his 3pc version.

My second favorite is my honey Lamiglas 6’ 3wt 4pc. This rod came from a one piece 7ft sanded blank I purchased from the Lami factory in Woodland, WA on one our trips down to Oregon. It came from their “obsolete” blank bin and I paid maybe $30 for it. Over a couple of years, I purchased a number of blanks that way. The completed rod weighs 1.6 oz and has the lightest in hand weight of any of my short rods. It is also thinnest walled blank I have seen. A very light, progressive blank that is a joy to fish.

- Mountain Brook "Native" 6'6" 2/3wt 4pc.

I don't have anything else under 7' that's 3wt or under. I'm looking, though, and considering the 6' Steffen, the 6'6" Lamiglas, or maybe the 6'6" Ijuin. Glad you initiated this thread, Corlay, and interested in the recommendations that come in.

Mike also built me a 5'5" 3wt Spruce Creek with spigots and two tips, one being heavier. That was after I bought a 5'0" 3wt Retro and found it MUCH faster than I anticipated.

I cast/fished a Scott F2 602 for a few weeks as a loaner from Scott, it probably fits this criteria better than anything else I have had. Sweeter and a tad softer than the F2653 as I recall, lots of mojo and a proper 2wgt.

Just purchased a Barclay 68L last week, its extremely promising. Comparing to the Scott F2653, it is a touch slower in recovery and has a firmer tip section which I enjoy. She loads and cast perfect straight loops gracefully with 10' of line of the tip, with 5' of line its barely loading the rod but you can easily short stroke flick accurate loops off the tip. This one doesn't peter out @ 30' and she tracks like a bloodhound... anxious to fish this one

Jb

Lami 605 with BPS 10-m DT line

We all like to dream of and pursue the perfect rod. For the situation described in the OP, I also don’t necessarily go for the artifice of up-lining, although I have done so in the past and may again. So now, going out on a limb a bit at the risk of being called a wacko, a better solution may be to look more closely at getting a well-designed leader that will turn over the fly being used with little or no line out of the tip guide. We can even go one step further and use a level line that puts more weight up front than any DT or WF line will, with no need to over-line. With a line of 3-weight or lighter, that still makes for a delicate presentation.

I can use a 3-5wt line on my asixco 10 piece 3wt rod. I would not say it is overlining because it just causes a deeper flex in the rod with a slightly different type of feel. I guess it is like getting 2 types of rods in one.

Similar to how Bulldog describes his water witch. It takes different lines and does very well with a slightly different action.

Probably why i got 2 of these rods.

Im using a 4 right now on my 10pc. The tip is so fine it probably works great with a 2. I have a little brother to the "water witch" (7' river rat) several months ago and completely agree. I use it as a 3 even though its supposed to be a 5-6. Many could argue but for me it has to be one of the finest 3s i have ever cast. Im pretty sure it would be an excellent 2 also.

the Cabelas CGR 4wt is 6'6" and not at all fast. (I'd actually even underline it). for 20-30 ft and flies smaller than 12, It's great. It is way to "whippy" for anything weighted if you care about accuracy.
But if you are looking for a good cheap specialty rod for small stream surface stuff, have at it. I would not recommend it for a generalist rod.

Corlay, I have to say that most, scratch that, the overwhelming majority of short rods under 7ft and under 4wt suck. Yes many of those rods will cast lighter lines but if you’re honest about it, they cast a heavier line better. To me, it’s not about how light a line a rod will cast but rather, what line the rod casts best. The old 7ft 3wt 2pc Lamiglas was very nice with a 3wt line but as soon as you got to a 3pc or more, it became a 4 wt. I never cast it with a 3.5wt but it may or may not have been better. I remember a 3wt line being a bit much for the Lamiglas 6’6” 3wt but never tried a 2 or 2.5 wt line on it so I don’t know. Most of the rods discussed here tend to do better with a half or full line weight heavier IMO. I have a Steffen 7’6” 2/3 wt 3pc that handles a 3 wt a good deal better than a 4wt but it’s just as good or better with a 3.5 wt so you could call it a 3.25wt if that helps. I have never in my life cast a rod with a recommended line wt of 2wt or less cast a line that cast best with that line wt. They ALL cast better with a heavier line, usually, on average, they cast better with 2 line wts heavier, some less but some lots more. I have cast a rod listed as a 2wt that cast better as a 6wt. Just because a good caster could cast it with a 2wt didn’t make it a 2wt rod. Whenever someone tells me they only use light line rods like 1 to 3 wts, I just roll my eyes. They aren’t doing anything different from those using 4 to 6 wts. They are just making things harder for themselves so they can make others feel like they are doing something special. And yes, I have a full set of lines in half line weights up to 7.5wt. Whenever I cast a new rod, I always try to find the best line weight to the nearest half weight. If I find a rod casts two adjacent line weights about the same, as the case with the Steffen 2/3, I call it to the middle 1/4 weight until I find which fishes best. In the case of my Steffen, it does just a little better with the 3wt over the 3.5wt.