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I love how this thread plays on conflicting instincts. Do you want immediate access to a wide variety of presentations that lend themselves to specific situations? Do you want simple and versatile options that work regardless of location or conditions? Personally, I would answer yes to both, so I think the best answer to the title question is: How many rods can you bring before they start getting in your way? From personal experience, I've narrowed the answers to: 1. If you fish the bank after a decent hike in: 1-2 rods 2. If you fish the bank in easily accessible areas: 2-3 rods 3. If you're on a small/sit-in kayak: 1-3 rods 4. If you're on a large/sit-on-top kayak: 2-6 rods 6. If you're on a bass boat with rod lockers: a lot I spend 95% of my time in #3 But, as always, the best rod is the one you have with you.

Got to agree with @IcatchDinks and @jbrew73 here; knives work great. They're also the best for tying any thing that needs a very short tag like leader knots.

Active: Richard Linklater, maybe Christopher Nolan (haven't seen Oppenheimer yet, though) No longer active: Stanley Kubrick

Thanks for the tips, y'all. Got to improve my topwater skills for moments like this

That's what the pickerel and bowfin do around here. Always a bummer when you lose a lure and leave a fish with some new jewelry. Hope you can hook it again and get the lure back. It happens. I've removed other people's rigs from bowfin before.

Any thoughts on flake vs no flake (or flake size) in these darker colored plastics? Wonder if there is any difference in terms of fish responding. I would treat the two colors above almost interchangeably while fishing, but I also have a 'favorite' junebug (gambler's). Maybe that's more of an artistic opinion than a practical one.

I have two nascis and they are great reels. No complaints

Both are dark colors with good contrast and visibility in a wide range of water/light conditions. I have more confidence in junebug, though, and in purple colors in general (morning dawn, MM3, etc). The gills around here usually have some degree of purple or violet coloration. Maybe it makes the bass angrier? Who knows.

I think about this too. It's weird how our instincts can cater to marketing more than practicality. Shopping is a lot of fun; fishing is a lot of fun. Most of us like to do both, but it seems like the wires get crossed sometimes.

I wouldn't judge a baseball player for their lack of touchdowns. If you're playing a different game or playing it on a different field, the results will be different, too.

Hmmm, I'd pick a UL and a M spinning setup. My usual tackle bag has the volume of about 2 fanny packs. Narrowing that down would leave me with a small box of terminal tackle (worm hooks, weights, jigheads) and a small box of plastics (tiny swimbaits, straight tail worms, small flukes), along with a pair of hemostats, a couple mini-spools of leader material, and a hook sharpener. Sometimes I think I should challenge myself to a one-lure trip, but it's always hard to commit to that. You never know what situation will present itself.

I fish from a sit-in kayak, so the rods on deck are limited to about three. Four gets a little too crowded. This forces me to pick combos by weight and versatility rather than specific techniques. For the lakes and rivers I fish, this typically means ultralight, light, and medium spinning setups (one each). I'll rig leaders and lures after I decide where I'm fishing, based on past experience, weather, season, water level, etc. For saltwater, it's usually two medium spinning setups and maybe a heavier baitcasting setup for live bait rigs. Sometimes, I'll bring an ultralight or a fly rod instead for multi-species fishing.

@J.Vincent is absolutely right. Florida has an great balance of climate, productivity, fish genetics and policy (slot limits), but DDs are not everywhere. Each lake and river here has it's own set of size classes, just like anywhere else.

Lol, one of these days this will be a solved issue, right? I'll agree with @Jig Man - as long as your guides are wide enough, running a leader shouldn't be an issue. That said, I prefer straight nylon or fluoro for my baitcast setups, but I mostly use them in saltwater.

Here in FL, early monsoon season. The spring crowds have disappeared and rising water draws fish to the banks and swamps. Second favorite would be late fall for pleasant weather and great inshore gulf fishing.

For light and medium light rods, 2000-3000 size reels would be fine. Having a larger arbor can benefit casting distance and drag performance, and I don't think you'll have a balance issue, especially with premium models. I like Shimanos, so I agree with the previous posters there.

All sorts of weightless worms have worked well for me. Favorites include zoom finesse and mag shaky head worms, roboworms, and speedworms (zoom or gambler). Haven't had much luck with creatures, though, aside from 3-4" hellgrammite style baits.

Started fishing along a maidencane grass line this morning. I reached an area where small bass were feeding on schooling shad (2-3”). They were blowing up all around the edges and middle of the grass beds, so I started targeting areas with active fish by twitching small, weightless soft plastics (mostly a gambler shakey shad) along the edges. This produced two bites and one fish (pictured, see grass in the background) before the action tapered off. Felt like I should have done better. How would y’all approach this? The thick grass and small forage both limit options from a “match the hatch" perspective. I’ve had similar difficulties fishing schooling/spawning shad before. Feels like it should be easy, but you can’t get their attention.

Not much luck with bass today, so I started looking for gills. Always a good time. Cool to see the color variation, too.

Ouch! Did the doc use the typical line pull trick, or another technique? Curious what the pros do. Every blue moon I think "I should try barbless hooks". This is extra motivation. Glad the fix was quick.

You're gonna love it! I've spent a lot of time kayak fishing inshore gulf flats between Steinhatchee and Homosassa. My favorite setup for trout and reds is well under your budget: Lew's Carbon Fire (7' medium) paired with a Shimano Sienna (4000). The Lews is stiffer than most mediums, which I like for distance, and, despite the price, the Sienna has held up beautifully in saltwater. Just needed a little lube and break-in. I'd generally recommend Shimano reels for saltwater. I've had bad luck with Daiwa and Penn, but YMMV.

Ha! Didn't mean to duplicate a thread. Oops.

How long could you fish without completely changing tactics? What would run out first? Lures? Terminal tackle? Line? Given that many of us (including me) are susceptible to the fishing industry’s marketing efforts, I’m curious how long your collections would last. I think I could fish two years, then I would run out of terminal tackle first. Baits would probably last another two years after that. Line would last a decade or more. For those of us who have more than we need, can anyone recommend charities of organizations that specialize in fishing gear? I occasionally donate some of my shopping surplus to a local tackle drive for kids. I’d love to know if there are larger organizations like this to support.

Agree with others that the spinshot design isn't necessary. The extra hardware could impede hookups, too, especially with shorter-shanked hook designs. And you probably already keep you hooks sharp, but for any light-line application it bears repeating: keep your hooks sharp.

This is the answer. Tying a good knot involves building years worth of muscle memory and sensitivity to potential faults. I’ll bet everyone here knows that feeling after they tied a knot that looked fine but didn’t quite feel right, then immediately retied. Most commonly used knots perform equivalently well when tied perfectly. Most commonly used knots are unreliable when they aren’t tied perfectly. Just takes time to learn the technique.