I have 2 8' pro anglers, a 8' ugly stick cat rod, and several TC yellow rods plus my po' boy special $10 shakespear that DCM put me on to, and I will wade out up to my chest (5' deep or so) before I cast out, and I can get out to the depths I need to get out to most places.
But I decided since I'm going to be banking it for a while now, I'm going to get some longer rods and use spinning reels to test out some various means of bait delivery (launchers, kites, balloons). Plus I will put them to good use down on the coast too.