For general fishing when I might switch from midges to streamers in one outing, I like my 50 year old Orvis split cane 8ft./5wt. with a double taper line. On the Pennsylvania limestone creeks where I fish mostly, more often than not I reach for a custom graphite 7ft./3wt. with a double taper floating line since size 20 and smaller dry flies are my game there. Sometimes when I'm feeling frisky I grab a 7ft./2wt. loaded with an English double taper silk line. Such rigs keep the effective range a little shorter than if I worked with a forward taper line, but I seek delicacy of presentation more so than distance. Leader/tippet length, line weight, rod dynamics become a little more critical when dropping a size 26 Griffith's Gnat in front of a rising Brown.
I tried the long light rods back when I thought the extra reach would serve me better for "dapping" on small tight streams. I found the tradeoff to be a handicap, but that's just me.
