Hmm, well, welcome to our sport. I grew up a bait/lure guy. It'll take you a few years to get back to catching as many as you did before, but the ceiling is higher, and you end up learning a lot more about the streams and fish along the way.
Words of advice: First take a casting lesson, it'll speed the learning curve and give you a base to go on. Then buy. And while good deals on good equipment can be found at Cabelas, as a beginner I strongly recommend going to a good local shop. They'll help you out more with choosing whats best for you, help you get a balanced outfit, etc. Never buy a rod without test casting several first. Its not uncommon to end up liking the cheaper one, especially for a beginner, as slower rods are generally cheaper and more forgiving for a not so perfect casting stroke.
The standard fair for a PA trout fishermen is a 9 ft 5 wt, with a matching reel and a 5 wt WF line. Unless your planning on getting into big fish regularly (like steelhead), you can skimp on the reel a little, not Walmart special cheap but you certainly don't need anything too fancy. It's a place to store line, and all it has to do is balance the rod and not break. Reels with internal plastic parts tend to break, but once you get over the plastic price range, if it balances the rod its fine.
You have to adjust the rod a little to what you plan on doing. The main two factors are:
Distance vs. delicacy: Higher line weights give you more distance and power, lower line weights more delicacy.
Open vs. brushy: This ones about length. A longer rod allows you to keep the line off the water, thus cast farther. Thats a factor for anyone, but especially a beginner. A shorter rod allows casting in tighter places, and is easier to carry through brush.
The 9 ft 5 wt is a standard because its not totally out of place in all but the most severe situations you'll find in PA. Also, its perfect for a medium sized stream. If you think your experience will lean towards larger streams, a 6 wt might be nice. If you think it'll lean towards smaller than average streams, stick with the 5 wt but go down in length a little. As for steelhead, I've used a 9 ft 5 wt before and it works just fine, you do need a better reel with a good drag system, and a large arbor will help you reel in quick if the fish runs at you. If you're gonna get serious about steelhead, a 10-11 foot 7 wt is probably about perfect, and doubles as a good big river/bass rod, but it won't be at home on smaller trout streams.
Brands:
Cabelas, Bass Pro, etc.: Have good stuff and have junk, price is not indicative of which it is. As a beginner, I wouldn't buy there. Once you get to be a decent caster, you can test cast them in the store, and determine which ones are good.
Sage, Orvis, Loomis.: All their stuff is good, even the low end stuff which isn't god awful expensive.
TFO, Cortland, etc.: Good enough at a good price, but you'll probably end up splurging sometime down the road.
Lines:
You want a floating line. Weight forward (WF) is better at distance and the most popular. Double Taper (DT) mends better and can be turned around for double the life, if taken care of properly. The functional differences are only for long casts, at 20-30 foot range or less, there's no difference.