what's a good beginner rod for fishing in a lake, mostly on shore but rarely in a boat?

The guys here are more than happy to give you their advice and experience...but that is way to broad of a question to answer. Are crappie fishing? or catfish fishing? or bass?

The best 'broad' answer I can give is that shakespeare's Ugly Stik line of rods are very good for the money...they oughta cost more than they do.

i dont know the types of fish, Maybe some catfish or slamon or something

just get ameduim action ugly stick...nearest...anything has them..walmart or sporting goodstores

http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catalog.TextId?hvarTextId=58455&hvarDept=100&a mp;hvarEvent=&hvarClassCode=2&hvarSubCode= 3&hvarTarget=browse

any medium spinning reel on a 6 foot medium action rod outfit would do ya fine. Walmart has some very nice rod and reel combos that are very affordable line one up with a quality line like berkely or stren in 10lbs test. That kind of setup will do it all. A buddy of mine i fish with isnt as big into all the fine tuned nick nacks of fishing hes very basic but sure does love to fish he uses a 6 foot medium action ugly stick with a shakespeare alfa II reel strung up with 10 lbs stren and he fishes for panfish and trout all the way up to big hawg channel catfish in the salt river with it. good luck