Best weight if your sticking strictly to drys would be a 4 wt and go with 9'. Personally I would by a 5wt so when you decide to start nymphing more you're set up for it. Something to take into account is what line is going on it. A higher end line can make a lower end rod cast better than a high end rod with crap line. Favorite right now is Rio's Gold series. Didn't mention reel but if you're needing one a good bang for the buck is the okuma slv series. Large arbor with fairly good cork drags on them.
This. Good post, almost verbatim to what I was going to post, but I prefer Ross, Galvin, or Lamson reels.
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