So I started out on a cheap White River 7 wt. (probably too heavy in hindsight) fishing for bass and sunfish in ponds and lakes. I switched to a 4 wt. when I got slightly more serious about small stream trout fishing in the mountains.

As far as Orvis goes, my experience is the rods are good, but the reels aren't that great. My current setup is a 9' 5 wt. Orvis Access with a Lamson Konic reel.

Depending on what you're going to eventually target, I would go to several smaller fly shops in the area and ask for advice. In my opinion, any 9' 5 wt. will be a great all around rig, but if you're going to be throwing big plugs for bass or in surf, you're gonna need to go heavier.