I'm going to go against the grain here a little. I fish a lot of small streams and areas where the stream is more of a "tunnel" through thick brush and overhangs. A lot of these are in the Smokey Mountains and here in Kentucky where the smallmouth and bluegill streams I fish are frequently no more than 10 feet wide.

With that said, I ended up selling my 7'6" rod. I found a longer rod works better for these types of streams than the shorter one.

Bottom line, if the brush is to thick to cast with an 8'6" rod, you're not going to be casting with a 7'6" rod either.

However, the longer rod allows me to have longer reach for high sticking the pockets and plunge pools or just dapping a fly or popper out next to some stump or rock. A 9' rod just gives me more reach and seems to be easier to roll cast when there's enough room for that.

The shortest rod I currently own is an 8'4" Scott G2 3wt.

Nothing wrong with shorter rods, but you may want to think about what you really want the rod to do.

Hope this helps.

Jeff