I use a St. Croix Light Weight spinning rod with a Pfluger reel. Four to eight pound line. Mepps or Panter Martin in line spinners are hard to beat. Salmon eggs work great too.

I know this might ruffle some feathers, but i trout fish just to get some action or past time. there is a stream close to my house full of trout and i use my number one rod and reel. i use a med/heavy rod, spinning reel the braided line that is on that reel. as for bait i use blue fox spinner bait, a beetle spinner, or even a small crank bait. i do very well to! i catch trout till i decide i have had enough. now remember i am not a big trout guy before you scoff at my set up. i think as fisherman we get to caught up in the latest trends of gear anyways, as long as i catch fish i dont care what on.

You can't go wrong with med/light rod with 6 lb line and a white roster tail.

I've got a Pfleuger President on a 6' Zebco ultra-light rod. 6#flouro. My favorite rod is a Zebco Omega thumb-caster, yep, you read it right, a thumb-caster. I've got it on a 6' cheapo Zebco rod that I broke the last 6" off of. Now it's a 5 1/2', stiff, and I can zing rooster tails and panther martins a looong ways w/it. Rooster's and Panthers make up 90% of my lure arsenal. The "hot" color seems to change w/every fishing trip. So naturally, I carry an extensive assortment, much to the chagrin of my wife. Rebel baby craws caught me my biggest brown ever last spring. I make my own dough-bait for the rare occasion that lures aren't hitting.

If fly fishing, use whatever the native insects are but with spinning tackle rooster tails are tough to beat. I also like using a orange trout worm 3in long with a #6 hook. I cut the tail of the worm so its only about 1/2 inch past where the hook comes out and I sight fish. The worm gets in the current and really dances, the trout will come up and suck it in and you wont even feel it most the time....really fun method.

depens for me, I have a light 5 foot spinning rod for streams and when I bait fish in ponds i use braid and a 7 foot 2 inch medium fast rod.

I have a couple St.Croix ultralite spinning combos. 4.5 and 5 footers. 2#test.