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.

After reading you and Crusty's posts I think I will sell all of my geeky 3 Wt.s under 7 feet .i have finally seen the light........Aurelio

Random thoughts generated by this thread, which nay not have any value ...
>At 5'-15' on dinky water it should all be leader.
>When I fished tiny brooks in the southern New England for native brookies the top half of an 8.5' Cortland 8/9wt rod worked very well with 16' leaders. (drilled dowel for grip & reel in pocket) It would still get out to 30' if there was room.
>Why make stuff harder when a 6wt works? At less than leader length to 1.5 x leader length the line isn't really working anyway-we are flinging the fly on it's own mass.

I am going to disagree with some of this.

When I fish "dinky" or "tiny" water, I often use a short 6' leader. What is the purpose of a 16' leader, if only a few feet of it are ever going to see the water? not following... (I'll even go so far as to say: what is the purpose of a 16' leader for ANY water, except for maybe highly-pressured spring creeks?)

So, the way I rig, the fly line absolutely does contribute to all but the very shortest casts.