After fly fishing primarily for warm water species in the Midwest, I've fished a few times in Southeast Wisconsin's Driftless region and I really like that type of fishing. Consequently, I've got bug to do a lot more fishing for trout in small streams. I have fished these small streams with an eight foot four weight rod, which worked well for most of the streams that I fished. I did find myself in some sections of streams where any type of cast was difficult to impossible to execute due to overhanging brush and lack of room to even do a roll cast. I'm considering getting a shorter fly rod in either a three or four weight to fish these tight streams, but I'm not sure how short I want to go. I plan on fishing with both surface flies and subsurface flies, so I want want something long enough to do at least some mending. Would a 6'10" or 7' rod be short enough to or should I go shorter than that?

Thanks for your opinions.