I am new to this site, and ran across this interesting topic. I do have a little experience here so I wil let you know my thoughts.
Loomis all the way, however Lamiglass does make a great rod.
Drift fishing I would steer towards a casting rod, side drifitng...go spinning rod.
A GL2 is a great rod at a Loomis introductory price, all around great rod would be a medium 8'6" in fast action cant go wrong for a good all around
Temple Fork, nice rod for the money, lacks the cosmetic luster of your finer rods but fishes well. I used them alot in my arsenal last summer and they held up great, all around rods I would go 6 weight for trout, 8 weigth for steel
Rainshadow makes a great blank and TH can build a great rod. Unless you know exactly what you want out of a rod I would steer to a factory until you have a real grasp on exacltly what you want.
I have been building a few float rods for center pins with rainshadow blanks, any other pinners out there???
If you narrow things down to a specific model, post it for more specific thoughts.

I have fished with a Lami 96ls, Loomis GL2 and GL3 and IMX (9'6") and the rod I use the most now is a custom rod from TH Custom Rods that is a Rainshadow 9' 6" 1042 blank with a carbon fiber wrapped handle. It is a medium light action and I like it better than any of the others I have tried. I would put this Rainshadow up there with the Loomis IMX only for half the money. The Lami 96LS is a nice rod and is less expensive ($125 if you know where to shop). I am a big fan of Shimanol reels. I like using a spinning reel for drift fishing. I go with the Sedona 4000.

I used to be a "Loomis guy" and they do make a good rod but now I think you can get more for your money.

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