>>940899Congrats OP
>>940929Cabela's Three Forks combo is pretty good. I do a lot of lake fishing so I started with a 9ft 6wt rod. If you're more streams/trout oriented go like, 7.5 ft and 4-5wt.
I do a lot of my own tying as well. Love to experiment and learn about local ecology. Since mayflies do well year round been experimenting with variants of them. Pic related might be the most successful pattern I've ever made/tried and it's fairly simple to make.
Materials:
Brown Thread (thin but strong)
Peacock Feathers
Goose Briots (for dual tail)
White/black premium hackle (don't cheap out)
Lead wire (if you want it to go deep)
Gold/copper beads size 5/32
Daiichi WET/NYMPH Hooks Size 10
Behold: the PanSlayer