I shoot docks on an occassional basis, and have a Shakespear XT UL 4'6" rod that seems to be my favorite right now, but also got a Bill Dance UL combo from BPS, but put a crappie max 750 size reel on it and they seem to work good together for me. The BD reel seemed a bit too big for my preference and I seem to put this crappie max reel on all my DS rods for the consistency. All of my DS rods are 4'6" or 5', and use 4lb hi vis. I don't have any "short rods" in the 26" range. Here's a link for you to consider if you're wanting a short rod. http://www.emmrod.com/ but you say you're gonna build the rod, but an ideal anyways.
GO BIG ORANGE !
I meant to behave, but there were just way too many other options available at the time.