When I fished club tournaments, I would only carry four rods and would ask my non-boating draw to do the same. When I fished invitationals by myself, I'd have five rigged rods on deck and another four or five in the rod locker.

Now, I still carry the same five when I'm out by myself, but only bring three when I go out with a partner. I do, however carry my reel case with me unless I know we'll be using one technique esclusively.

I own too many technique specific rods not to utilize them, so I try to determine which I'll be using on a particular day. You can use a spinnerbait rod for cranks or a worm rod for jigs, but you loose the benefit that the rod was designed to give you. I'm one to put the odds in my favor whenever possible and multiple rods do that for me.

I fish tournaments fairly often but I fish recreational much more. This is what I use and consider it to be average among the people I fish with:

Lew's SL Speed Stick Micro Crankin' Rod 7' MF with a Revo STX 6.4:1- Square bills and topwater, with the occasional deep diver

Abu Garcia Veritas Micro 7' MF with a Lew's Tournament Pro Speed Spool 6.4:1- Texas rigs and finesse jigs

St. Croix Premier 7' MHF with a Johnny Morris Signature 6.4:1- Jigs and frogs

St. Croix Legend Tournament 6'6" MHF with a BPS Pro Qualifier 7.1:1- Spinnerbaits and buzzbaits

Dobyns Savvy Micro 693 with a Pflueger Supreme- Senkos and shakey heads

This is by no means what a beginner should be using, but just to give you an idea how one rod can be used for multiple techniques.