Trout Setup

Get the best rod you can afford, if your going to skimp do it with the reel. There is nothing worse than fishing all day with a rod thats going to wear you out. If all your going to use it for is trout a reel is nothing more than to hold your line. So invest wisely in your rod.

I use an Okuma Sierra Fly reel and a Tica TC3 5 wt rod.  Tica makes a sweet rod and the price is around $70 or so.  The reel is decent and I like it, but there are other good ones on the cheap as well.  Send me a PM if you have any questions about the rod.

What size water are you planning to fish, small spring creeks, big rivers?

I like small slow rods on small streams(less then 20-30ft wide) and if I plan to nymph, I always want a slow rod!

I like med action for most of my dry flies.

A tip flex is worthless unless you wanna fish lakes.

I cant say I prefer any rod. We(combined) own two cortlands, one orvis, and one cabelas... I like them all... they ranged in price from $50->$400. We own a multitude of reels from martin, orvis, cortland and pfluger, they to ranged from $30->$100+ and I too like them all, I will have to say the cortland is a large arbor on an 8wt and its so smooth and quiet for $100 reel! Fish Usa has some excellent stuff.

You wont get to cast it pretty much anywhere but this was my workhorse for 10+years, i used it from steel to spring creek trout.

Model : 657519 - $100
Cortland GRX ROD

They arent selling the reel anymore but this is the closest too it, Id like to mention that this reel is not a click pawl drag which is good. Its disc!
Pflueger Reel

Dont forget - Line is EXPENSIVE!
I suggest if you go with that rod you put a 6wt dt on it to load it a little faster. I have Triangle Taper WF 6wt on mine. One bad thing about a WF line is that you need to get some line out before it starts feeling good.... I use this rod mainly for dries but like I said, I fished it for 10 years!!! NEVER had to send it back for repair :::KNOCKS ON WOOD::: yet, I still fish it too this day sometimes while the $700 orvis sits in the closet!

ORIGINAL: Loopy

Jlh, You're wrong about a tip flex being worthless unless you fish lakes. There are plenty of larger streams and rivers where a tip flex is beneficial. Hell, you can use a tip flex anywhere. It's all in the caster.

You are correct, but to me it sounds like he wants somthing to serve all purposes of trout fishing. If hes just getting into buying a trout rod he isnt gonna be casting 80ft.

mgolf--
 
The best advice anyone could give you is to go cast go cast go cast.  If you know you casting stroke, just let the shop know you are looking for a rod with X action, under $X.  Cast them all.  A rod that fits you well will save you money in the long run.  As mentioned above, a trout reel serves no purpose other than storage, generally.  You certainly don't want a reel that's going to weigh your rod butt down.  You can't beat a Ross reel IMO.  Their flywater, flystart, flycast reels are cheap, look great, and I'd imagine reasonably light for their price.  Here's a link:
 
http://www.rossreels.com/images/news_articles/pdf/2007%20February%20Website%20Newsletter4.pdf
 
I have Triangle taper on all my reels but one.  Can't see spending $60 on another line to find how it's not as good as TT.  The only disadvantage to TT is if you are fishing very small streams or throwing very large flies (this would not apply to a 5 wt)  ..  the front taper is long and rollcasting on tiny streams can be difficult in terms of accuracy.  I would suggest scientific anglers ultra 4 for tiny streams.  For my 8 and 9 wt. TT .. I cut some of the taper off, especially on the 9 to turn over large flies.  Since distance is not important for a tiny stream trout rod .. I'd only go for SA U 4, it'll save you $15 or so.  Otherwise, TT is hard to beat.  A 5 line TT lays down like a 3 line.  That's good stuff!!!! for throwing a dry fly.
 
best of luck..

Its a superfine, you add the rod+reel+line+tax roughly $700

Of course a couple months ago, if anyone would have jumped on the opportunity presented, you could have owned the rod for $245 which was a steal!

ORIGINAL: jlh42581

Its a superfine, you add the rod+reel+line+tax roughly $700

Of course a couple months ago, if anyone would have jumped on the opportunity presented, you could have owned the rod for $245 which was a steal!

 
A very quality rod that Superfine.  I should have jumped on the 7 foot 3 weight the local shop had for $200.  They are definitely the slowest of the slow.  A CFO would look real nice on a Superfine.  It's too bad they reissued them at over 400 bucks.  Bad move I think.

Tip flex rods do have their place. I have a few myself, but dont fish them often. In my opinion, fast rods do not protect light tippet and do not turn over short casts well. It confuses me why orvis would want to market a tip flex superfine.
 
As far as CFO's, if you are going to spend $400 on a reel, buy a Hardy, they are much nicer.

ORIGINAL: thedrake

Tip flex rods do have their place. I have a few myself, but dont fish them often. In my opinion, fast rods do not protect light tippet and do not turn over short casts well. It confuses me why orvis would want to market a tip flex superfine.

As far as CFO's, if you are going to spend $400 on a reel, buy a Hardy, they are much nicer.

 
The CFO disc drags are under 200 bucks.

I thought you were referring to the CFO being over $400. My mistake

Actually, They did reissue a CFO for over $450.
It was one of the Orvis 150th Anniversary items they were pushing.
So, even when you think you're wrong, you're right. Wow...

Dano-
 
I have a sage launch 9wt and I like it alot.  It's quick enough for me, but I am also looking into a FLi.
 
Anad-
 
I'm not planning to overweight a line.  I never have a problem casting with the appropraite line, and I find one over to be heavy and awkward.

ORIGINAL: Mikastorm

You mean my old browning glass rod is outdated? lol

 
 Yes it is and if you ever want to get rid of it, let me know.
 I picked up and old Garcia/Conolon 6ft-5wt.  a few years ago and just love it for fishing the small ANF streams.
It had the old silk line designation of HEH written on it instead of the modern plastic line designation. The HEH pretty much is a double taper 5 weight but I fish it with a 4wt line.
 Some of those old glass rods were pretty darn good and some I've cast were surprisingly powerful.   
 

I ended up buying a Ross Flywater and a St. Croix Avid 9' 5wt.  I am extremely pleased.  The reel is beautiful, smooth and light.  It's a sweet little rod, but it's got some power to it.  I can throw out some serious line with it.  I haven't bought a nice line yet, I have a cheap SA on there now.  In an attempt to be objective, I am disappointed with the real seat of the rod.  It is cheap and unattractive.  Overall great rod and setup.  Thanks for all your help guys.
 
Mike