Brian I'm not a fan of the BPS brand of waders.
If you buy any kind of "house brand" I'd go with Cabelas. If it's something you're contemplating ordering soon I've shipped a bunch of stuff to a friend in Ohio.
You're more than welcome to do the same. I'll be meeting with him to pick up my stuff sometime in late March.
I do agree with stocking foot waders and wading boots as opposed to bootfoot, at least for the bulk of your fishing.
Bootfoot waders are unbeatable though for winter steelheading as they'll keep your feet 10X warmer than stocking foot waders when standing in ice water for hours.
As far as backing goes I believe it's only truly necessary if the reel's spool is super deep. You don't have to fill a float reel right to the lip. In fact it may perform better if slightly underfilled. Less issues with line running amok in windy conditions.
Recently I've been constructing arbors out of thin adhesive backed cork for some of my reels. It's a fantastic alternative to filling up your reel with heavy dacron.
As far as mainline goes I'm not a fan of fluorescent lines.
Probably the best all around value that's readily available is Raven Mainline in dark green.
I use 12lb regularly (it's very thin line), but 10 would be okay too.
On a side note I mailed you a package last week, havn't you received it yet?