I have a 7ft sage 3 wt, best decision I ever made. You can feel the fish blink when you're fighting them, and it still turns over bigger flies. I fish the exceptional waters on the grand for smallmouth with it, and it does fine with long casts and a weighted (beadhead) wooly bugger. For trout, I have been pounding the brookies here on cape breton, the best fish was 13" and it was so much fun, I could actually feel the fish for once, and I still feel as if I could lean into the stick even more.
For the reel, I have an echo ion, it was around $100 and it's holding up great and looks very nice. You can set the drag really loose and that makes the smaller trout and bass a ton of fun. I have it loaded with rio gold trout line, very nice line, very durable, and it casts both long and short distances like a dream. Roll casts are very nice with it too, but when I have too much line out it doesn't turn over, but what can you expect, it's a 3wt line. It also drops the little trout flies with a dainty litte sploosh.
BTW, the rod is a sage flight, I think they might have discontinued it along with the other rods in it's year class, but it was $395, which I know is out of your price range, so I'm recommending the sage approach, I believe it's $295. What I'm trying to say is, save up and get a stick that will last a lifetime and you feel good about, it will be worth it. But if you want to stick strictly with the budget, i've seen some est. Croix imperials for around $130.
Hope this helps!
