First Rod: My first ever fly rod purchased with pan fish and small bass in mind was a cheaper 5 weight 9' Okuma Tempest rod and reel combo. A step up from the pre packaged fly fishing kits this pre built ready to fish combo set me back $100. Toss in a few flies and some leader/tippet material and I was around the $150 mark. Now to me that is a cheaper setup and knowing that I love fishing I figured that I would enjoy fly fishing just as much if not more then spin casting. That being said if I did not know how far I was going to take things, or if I would even enjoy it I may have gone with a much cheaper $40-60 combo just to get out on the water catching fish. When targeting pan fish you really do not need top of the line gear or tools at all. If someone were to ask me about buying a rod specifically for pan fish I would ask if they planned to use the rod for anything else. My choice to go with the 5wt came from the chance that I may eventually use the rod to fish for bass, otherwise I may have started out with a 2-4wt rod.
Second Rod: Once fly fishing had its hooks into me (pun intended) I started to look at 2-4wt rods that would be more geared towards small trout and pan fishing, increasing the fun of hooking smaller scrappy fish. I ended up purchasing a customs 6' 7" inch 2 wt rod from Midwest Custom Fly Rods out of Michigan matched with a 2/3 Okuma SLV reel and I must say for pan fish and small trout this rod is amazing. One thing to think about is with a 2 wt rod you are limited in what flies you can cast. It limits you to small weightless flies, and only the smallest of bead head nymphs and tiny streamers, but the delicate presentation that comes from using this rod just seems to drive the gills bonkers. The first night I took this rod out to the pond I put 100+ fish on it within only a few hours. If you are only planning to target pan fish and perhaps smaller trout down the road a 2-4wt rod is a great idea IMO. With that in mind there will likely come a time when a larger bass, carp or other pond fish takes a swipe at your fly and hooks up...hooking up with a 6-10lb carp on a 2wt will not likely end well for your rod. Also with the lighter weight rods it can get difficult casting when it is windy.
Third Rod: The third rod that I purchased to chase bluegill with was a 12 foot Tenkara rod. Tenkara is a very simple method of fly fishing from Japan. A tenkara rod is a telescopic rod usually in the 12-15 foot range that does not use a conventional reel. Instead a level line (usually a section of 15# or so fluorocarbon line) is attached to the tip of the rod. At the end of this line (I usually run 10-13 feet) you attach some 5X tippet and then your fly. Tenkara matches very well with pond fishing for gills and is even deadlier on small trout streams I have found. The focus with tenkara is more on presentation then the actual fly you are using with many tenkara masters only using one single style of fly only in different colors or sizes. If you would like more information on tenkara there are many great sites that focus on the topic such as Tenkara USA.
Leaders & Tippet: When fishing for pan fish cheap trout leaders will work just fine. I am a person who is exceptionally hard on my leaders, be it from wind knots or abrasions from rocks I cannot seem to keep a leader in working order for anymore then a few trips. Because of this I have gone to making my own tapered leaders using fluorocarbon and maxima leader material. You can purchase 100 yard+ spools of fluorocarbon fishing line for relatively cheap and it can be used for both leader material as well as tippet. I usually keep well stocked on 4-12lb line and have a few different spools of maxima along these ranges as well. Most of the time my pan fish leaders are made to be around 9 feet. Sometimes I taper down 3 steps going from 8lb to 4lb over that nine feet, sometimes in 3 foot increments, other times I will go with 6 feet of say 8lb and taper down the last 3 feet to 4lb. I play around with a lot of different formulas for building my leaders but have found that when pond fishing for gills it does not seem to matter all that much due to the size and weight of the majority of the flies I use. As for tippet I usually use 4-5X tippet or 4-6lb fluorocarbon line as tippet which seems to do the trick. Check often for wind knots and abrasions in your leader and tippet and switch out as needed. There is nothing worse then losing a trophy crappie or gill due to a compromised leader or tippet material.
Fly Selection: In part one I went over my theory of fly selection for a particular pond I fish. It is never a bad idea to carry a wide assortment of flies in a dedicated pan fish fly box stocking up with patterns that work and replacing things that do not. The flies that I started with included wooly worms, small wooly buggers, pheasant tail and hares ear nymphs, scuds, sow bugs, and small poppers. Once you start to key into what the fish are after in your area you can start experimenting with different patterns. Simply put though, pan fish love movement, rubber legs, jigging motions and small buggy flies in general. When you get into larger crappie you can start stocking up on small bait fish imitations as this can be a large portion of their diet.
Don't Leave Home Without Them: Before I leave to go fish for gills there are a few items that I make sure to double check that I have brought along. Number 1 is a pair of small forceps used to remove hooks from the small mouth of bluegill, pumpkin seed and red ear sunfish. Without these I would say that 80% of the time I would not be able to safely and quickly remove the hook. The second item on my list is a pair of polarized sunglasses. Having eye protection while swinging around a sharp hook is always a great idea, as well being able to take the glare off the water and see what is happening below the surface is priceless. With polarized glasses you can see where fish are holding, following a fly, or see when the fish become spooked. Aside from that it is never a bad idea to carry a small first aid kit, water for hydration, a small snack or two, and of course a camera to take pictures of the many beautiful fish you will catch.
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