Iain,
I used to fish a tiny burn that ran through Auchenblae (well, my garden
) with a 7 foot cane rod. I bought the blank from Somers some 23 years ago and made up the rod. I used a double taper 2 or 3 weight, cant remember which..sure it was a 2 though coz i struggled to find a line! Lovely chestnut brown colour.
It was fantastic fun and i had many a 10-12oz brownie on the dry, or sometimes a nymph. The biggest trout I took from that burn was just under 3 pounds, and it was nearly all head. Horrid looking thing, but the rod coped well.
I also had a shot on the West Water with it, and encouraged by Richard Walker, even took a few rainbows from Inch with
It met its demise on a tree trunk
I am a firm believer that cane is superior to carbon when it comes to short rods and very light lines as they seem to cope far better with the shorter casts required. All to do with the weight of the blank flexing itself rather than the fly line and thus laying a fly line out rather than trying to punch one. That 3 weight I bought from Sandy works so much better with a 5 weight line on it for short distance work