I've caught most of my trophy fish inside 5 meters -believe it or not.  No full length casts at cruising fish.  I do best stalking right up to fish and then presenting at the perfect time by judging their body language.  Its not a popular method, but it works brilliantly for me.  A 9ft rod is just too short for the reach if your going to jig-drop the fly in front of a fish.  So i finally tracked down the ultimate 10 footer.  A Scott S3s.

Scott 10ft S3s 8wt

Yip, that close.