If your fishing salmon your gonna want an 8-9 weight rod
To be completely honest my 9 weight for this time of year is a poverty tier Cortland and its never done me wrong, in fact I'd say its a pleasure to use.
I think we often put too much thought into the rod and reel, especially for beginners,
What you really need is a good assortment of line, leader, tippet, and a wide variety of flies. You gotta try everything, see what works and what feels good. You can have the best rod on the planet and if your line is all wrong, your running dry flies with heavy sinking line your SOL and if your trying to get those nymphs deep deep into the feeding lane on super floating line your fucked.
and then theres different tapers, blah blah blah.
It takes a lot of trial and error, and a lot of advice asking from the crusty old dude at the fishing shop
If i was gonna suggest an all around generic beginner setup, go with some weight forward floating line, and for fishing a variety of stuff like nymphs, wets, and dries and a few streamers once in awhile, I would use a tapered knotless leader about as long as your rod (9' long) and add a short section (about 2 1/2') of tippet which is untapered monofilament
good luck!
