Long rods vs Shorter and short rods
I am starting this thread as I had very long discussions with a number of fly fishers and new fly fishers about the length of rods, their actions, the task for each and your style of fishing.
Please add your opinion, experiences and preferences in this thread.
Hopefully after a couple of pages, we will have a very informative thread with lots of useful info.
My love for the long rods are well documented on Flytalk.
It suits my style of fishing or the way that I like to fish most of the time.
But if you look at the shorter rods and the Italian casting style, there is a huge place for shorter rods, as the Italian casting style is not possible with long rods https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-Wgs6KftR0
If you are fishing in bushy streams or lots of overhang trees most of the time, shorter rods are definitely advantages, as it is more "cumbersome" with a long rod, but not impossible.

A couple of points that are normally raised or mentioned
Action of long rod vs short rod
Soft long rod or fast long rod
Reach of long rod vs short rod
Feel of the rod i.e. "heavy, cumbersome" swing weights etc.
The "crispness" of the rods
Protection of tippets
Loading of the rod
Applications Dry fly vs nymphing, which one to go for?
Can a long rod used for dry fly or can a short rod be used for nymphing?
What about in between lenghts?
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These are a couple of the points that comes up in discussions.
Add some more if you want and lets get a healthy discussion going.