re: Recommendations on rod/reel combos for light saltwater and freshwater?

I have a few different setups.
I have a Penn Fierce II 2500 combo that is fine. I use it mainly for throwing a cork. It is slightly on the heavy side but it works.
For baitcast reels, I stick with Shimano (when I can get them on sale) and Lew's tournament series. I have found from experience that those 2 hold up better in salt water over time. Plus both, especially Lew's, have great customer service.

For Rods I have Duce, All Star, and H2O Ethos. I love the H2O ethos line of rods. They are good rods but if anything happens Academy makes it so easy to retun. I actually had my kayak smash the tip of my H2O rod between the last 2 eyes and Academy took the return without question. All the H2O rods have a bar code on them so you don't have to keep the receipts. Just bring it into Academy and they scan it and give you store credit for the price. It's great, so you never have to worry about when a rod breaks.