I am fortunate to have a father who gets superb discounts at Orvis and frequently gifts me when I have a want (Yes, I am pretty spoiled). That being said, good used rod/reel combos can be had at auctions or yard sales. I use a 4 wt for blue gill, and they seem to hit anything I tie on, small ant or spider flies, poppers, small wooly buggers, nymphs. Nothing like a 10" bg on a 4 wt rod. I use heavier leaders (10X) due to lots of underwater structure. One thing that can run into money is not using tippet materiel. You lose a bit of leader every time you retie a fly, tapered leaders can add up
buy tippet spools in different sizes to extend the life of your leader.
For LM I mostly use a 6 with many of the same flies, just bigger (and don't forget the tippet). Use a drop rig (large popper with a nymph tied 2-8" below) for the chance at a double, lm with bg or maybe two lm!!
If I only had 1 fly rod, it would be the 6, bg are still fun, and large bass or other predator fish are possible. But bass are my target, would probably stick with the 4 if bg were target.
If you are fishing from shore, a small box that can be comfortably carried on your body to hold flies and tippet materiel in along with a pair of hemostats are very useful.
If you are close to an Orvis store, they give free basic fly fishing instructions at many of the stores. If you are near Richmond VA, ask for Dale and tell him his daughter sent you.
