It's easier to use when casting from shore around and under trees. I love fishing creeks that have heavy cover with small clearings to fish from.

It's easier to use when casting from shore around and under trees. I love fishing creeks that have heavy cover with small clearings to fish from.

It's easier to use when casting from shore around and under trees. I love fishing creeks that have heavy cover with small clearings to fish from.

Ultra Lights also work very well while fishing docks and tree overhangs on rivers and lakes. Just my two cents.

I use the 4 1/2 foot Microlite rods because I fish from a pier and the longer rods are always hitting something. Also, the short rods have a better feel as mentioned above. I think I can place the bait more accurately with the short rod.

I use a 7 foot light action rod when fishing for crappie or trout from the open bank. I use a 6 foot medium action for bass, catfish and carp.

I own light action rods from 4 1/2 feet to 10 feet, and I definitely prefer the short rods for sunfish, rigged with a slip bobber, split shot and #8 hook.

This I'm not so sure on. I have fished many a dock in my day and have always found myself wanting more reach and not less. Now if the dock you're fishing has a brushpile right in front of it, then casting is not really an issue, but even when I've fished a dock with a brushpile 20' from the dock, there has still been many times when I saw signs of and/or suspected fish were just out of the range of my shorter rods.

As far as fishing tree lines go, I guess it just depends on what vantage you are fishing the tree lines from. If you are fishing from shore under the tree lines, I can see fair reasons why you would want to fish with a shorter rod. Although, unless you are fishing on a bank lined with willows, a few learned casting techniques would still make a longer rod more desirable for me since I put a premium on casting distance and being able to get a good hookset at distance. Now as to casting to a tree line from another bank or boat of some sort, I would feel much more comfortable with a longer rod in my hands. It maybe because I forced myself to learn different casting techniques and angles, but that's just how I fish now. I have a shorter rods for dock shooting, but for casting under low hanging tree limbs, I have learned a roll, skipping or underhand pitch can get my lure deeper under those spots than a shorter rod can, for me at least. And I have more angles to get a good hookest on the fish and can get more leverage on it to get it out of some gnarly places faster.

Which kinda brings me to my next question: do you guys pitch with your shorter rods? As far as accuracy and control of the presentation in a radius of about 10'-20' goes, it's hard to beat bass style "pitching" with a longer rod. I grant that I have never tried pitching with a shorter rod unless you count trying to pitch to another spot further down the creek bank with my 6'er. I was introduced to UL and L power bream/crappie pitching from an old Pro in TN when I was stationed there. He could absolutely pick apart a bed of stick ups and reeds just by pitching a tube with a insert jighead with or without a small cork. It was uncanny. At the time he was using a 8' Light power rod that he had had a local rod builder make from a fly rod and 6lb test. I'm sure he still is. It was much like the type of swinging you would do with a cane/bream pole but with added range. Just my and something to think about.