Rod & Reel

Having really never fly fished, I had no idea what I needed as far as a rod & reel. So if you're reading this, you are a lot like me, you went to the Web and started looking for advice. I stopped into some shops and was discouraged a little. One shop told me rods are like women, every guys likes something different. Of course, that didn't help me much. Seeing that I hadn't been "fishing" yet, I didn't know what kind of woman/rod I would like. My thought was, since I knew I'd be fishing in specific locations for specific types of fish, they might have some advice. Everyone has to start somewhere. In this case, it wasn't at that shop. I went online and looked at the myriad of options and that didn't help much either.
So I found myself at Flyfisher's Paradise in State College. I introduced myself and asked them my question. Dennis and Steve were quick to explain some of the differences in sizes and weights and pointed me toward some of last season's rods that were on sale :-) It was a really nice day for February, and Dennis took me outside and helped me experience some of the differences. He gave me some free casting advice (which was very appreciated) and let me sit there and fling my line around even though I really didn't know what I was doing. That being said, I could feel some differences and I decided on a rod that felt the most natural.
I purchased a 5 weight, 8'6" Orvis Clearwater II, 4-piece .
Then we had to talk about reels. One of the great things about this shop was there was no pressure or up-selling. They explained some of the basic differences and suggested a fairly inexpensive reel, the Orvis Encounter, Large Arbor Reel. We even found some highly visible floating fly line that was on sale and they loaded my reel with backing and my line and got it ready to go.