Ok, so here's the thing: you are talking about 3 different kinds of fishing. Stream, lake & river fishing.
For stream fishing, the most prefered method is fly fishing. Streams are usually shallow, have a pretty decent current to them and have all sort of rocks and maybe sticks on the bottom, depending on where you are at. A fly rod will allow you, with TONS of practice, to be able to throw out a fly and let it sit on the top for a sec then flick it back up and put it in another spot. For the most part, stream fishing will consist of catching trout along with the occasional bass, perch or crappie (again, dependent on where you are located/fishing). So for stream fishing I would recommend a nice fly rod and reel with a decent assortment of flies or even a nice lightweight rod, such as an Ugly Stick, along with an open face reel and a couple of topwater lures.
With lake fishing, I am guessing you will be on a boat. There are sooooo many ways to fish a lake. You can fish off the banks and hit the areas with plenty of cover and debris with rubber worms and flukes, you can hit the shallows when they are spawning with a lizard or a shallow crank bait, you can just drop down deep in the channels (much like saltwater) and wait for a school of Striper to come by, you can troll, and if you decide you don't even want to use a pole, you can go noodling for some cats. If you don't have a boat, you'd want to find a spot off the bank with some cover and debris and fish it with a rubber worm, fluke or weedless crank bait. For lake fishing, I prefer a 7' medium or lightweight rod. Ugly sticks are, again, my favorite but I have a few bass pro brand rods and reels and, at times, those can be my favorite, especially in their medium weight rods.
Lake fishing is another animal in itself too. The only reason I have ever lake fished is in the hunt for some big catfish. There are other ways to fish a lake, but this is the only way I have ever done so. When going out for big cats, you're gonna want a big rod
A long, thick 8-12 footer with some heavy line and a beast of a reel is the ideal way to go. I have fished with less, but then again, I have lost poles and some big fish if I did so. For lake fishing, I have mostly stuck to having some sort of foul smelling bait (stinkbait, chicken livers, blood baits) or live bait (giant nightcrawlers, crawfish or shad), have that bait attached to a big treble hook and then have a heavy weight (3-6oz sinkers, depending on the current) about 10-18" from the trble hook.
Again, this is all from my experience and it is what I prefer. Everyone I know does something a little different so it is all about preference. All of my freshwater fishing was also done in the Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas area so it may be a little different than what you are going for. Either way, good luck! I have not been too happy with the freshwater fishing in Virginia, but I am moving to New Mexico here in a few months, so hopefully I will be able to get back to some good fishing again.