G. Loomis and St Croix may be a little steep for a beginners rods but will definitely make you enjoy throwing the big lures more. As far as a reel, you really can't beat a 6500 abu garcia c3 without dropping a couple hundred dollars or more...I really like my Revo but took me a while to talk myself into it.

The main bummer down here as far as I can tell is you can't find a store that caters to musky fisherman( or even knows they exist) without driving a long ways