Short fly rod

Currently I have a 7’6” 3 weight rod. Once a year I come up to Colorado for a week to hang out at my families cabin and get a chance to do a lot of great fishing. Today I found a nice little stream on non land packed with brook trout. The stream was anywhere from 18” wide to 3’ wide and had willow trees all around it. So I am looking for a very short light rod just for fishing small creeks. I have my eye on two rods right now.

The Redington butter stick in 1 weight 5’9”

Or

Tfo signature 2 weight six foot.

Any other rods I should look at? I know for sure I will be putting a ross reel Colorado on it. Have one for my 3 weight and really like it.

My shortest rod is a 7' Hardy glass that I used from the willow choked streams of Colorado to the rhodo and laurel hells of the southeast Appalachians. It still lays out a decent cast when needed and I can either "dap" it through heavy cover or make a bow and arrow shot under overhanging brush.

I just don't like going much shorter but any of the TFO line seems like it would fit the bill and the butter stick you mentioned seems very interesting. I think a glass rod would be better for durability in really brushy situations.

I love my 5' half weight TFO.

I have a Cabelas TQR 5' 4wt - 2 piece fly rod. Works well but have been playing around with Micro Fly Rods including zip tying a 2/3 Wt Echo Ion Reel to Orvis' Practicaster.

Here is demo where I used the Orvis Practicaster to answer a request from a YouTube viewer. In this case, I removed the zip tied fly reel.... Rod is 3 foot long.

I have not cast the specific rods that you listed, but I encourage you to cast them before you buy one. I have cast other rods in both series and my experience is the Butter Stick and the Signature have very different actions and "feel". The Butter Stick rods tend to be slow action. Some people love them, but I've seen other people get very frustrated trying to cast them. If possible cast both rods and pick the one that feels best to you.

Good luck!

Have you tried the Tenkara style fishing?

I found my 2wt graphite to lack the feel of my 3wt fiberglass rods. It was a cannon, but too fast for what I like in a short creek rod. I really like my Scott F2 and F series. The F series can be had in 5’8” 3wt and is a very fun rod and pairs well with a Colorado LT, that’s have I have both rods set up. The series also has 2wt. I haven’t tried Orvis’ 2wt fiberglass, but I really liked the 7” 3wt.

If you want to experiment and don’t want to spend to much, you could try a Cabelas CGR. I have a 6’6” 4wt CGR with Cortland Sylk line and it’s very, very light.