What's a good fly rod weight for fishing Texas rivers and lakes? Mostly bream fishing with the occasional bass.

Beginner or experienced caster?
For a beginner, a 5wt, 9' with a Weight-Forward Floating (WFF) line. Cast a few different rods to see which action suits the way you want to cast.
For an experienced caster, a 3wt 7.5 to 9 ft (Longer casts, longer rod) with a WFF or Double Tapered line, depending on how much roll casting (DT) you plan to do.
9' tapered leader to 5X. About 18" of 5X tippet until the leader starts to thicken, then 4X.
I like furled leaders for casting, but I get hung up too much, and always mess them up.

Kirk

Lol hey stump jumper hope all has been well. I always seamed to run across your post in the bass section few years ago. I just don't do anything but lurk in there anymore. I have better things to do than to deal with a lot of the folks that have turned up over there lol. If you are going mostly for gills crazy is spot on with 3-5 wt. but I know you hit bass a bit so I would stay in the 4-5wt range and 9'. If you are going to skimp skimp on the reel. You can make do with a clicker with no drag. Great line and a decent rod will cut the learning curve greatly. If you re spool invisix on as many reels as I do a few times a year. The 70-90 dollar hit on top line isn't much it will last several years if you learn to clean and take care of it. Go with a low end temple fork rod you will support texas based fly fishing and they compete with any high end brand, and have a no-fault lifetime warranty. I grew up in central texas and fished central bass champs for several years. Belton is my favorite lake in that series you have a myriad of options in your backyard to use a flyrod and I think you will be hooked.