Hey guys it's me, the rod bug again lol. I'm asking all these rod questions because I'm now looking to own numerous rod/reel combos. So my question to everyone is what are the 5 most important rods to have with you on the boat? And please don't just say the rod technique name and if you do can you tell me what the power and action is. Even the 3 most important will be very helpful. I've read the articles on here but I'm still having a hard time. I feel like they're confusing me more. I just want your opinions. I have a 7' MH fast already and a spinning combo so I guess 3 more rods I'd need. What do you think?

My go to top 5! All in the Dobyns lineup;

DX742sf-dropshot

DX764sf -tubes

DX745-jigs

DX743-swimjigs

DX742sf-finesse jigs

I'd feel pretty confident only bringing these setups in the boat, but depending on the bite I would switch out the 2nd DX742sf for another moving bait of some type i.e square bill on the 705cb glass.

The 5 basic bass rods to me are;

Baitcasting; 3, 4 and 5 power fast action, 6'10" to 7'3"

Swimbait baitcasting; 6 power moderate action, 7'10 to 8'

Spinning; 3 power, moderate/fast action, 6'8 to 7'

Where 3 power =bc medium+,sp medium-, 4 power = medium/ heavy, 5 power = heavy, 6 power = heavy+, 3 oz to 5 oz lures.

Mfr's; ALX Custom, Loomis and Lamiglas. I don't own and would consider Dobyn's or St Croix

If you are not into swimbaits than add a crankbait rod, 4 power, moderate action, 7'3" to 7' 8"

I fish all 6 year around and have doubles or more of each.

Tom

Texas Rig for casting, flipplng, pitching, & punching

Jig-N-Craw for casting, flipping, pitching, & punching

Heavy Action for flipping, pitching, punching 3\4 oz & up

Spinner Bait\Rat-L-Trap\Buzz Bait

Weightless\Drop Shot

5 is too many 2 is all you need

7'-7'3" MH/fast for general purpose, t-rigs, senkos, flukes, spinnerbaits, swim jigs, buzz baits...etc

 

7'-7'6" MH/Moderate glass rod for cranks

 

6'10" M/XF for topwater, jerkbaits, small cranks, darter heads

 

7'3" H/F for frogs, c-rigs, jigs, pitching/flipping heavy cover

 

7' M/F spinning for drop shot, shaky head, finesse

 

This would be stretching it pretty thin but for a general purpose 5 rod line up, this would work for me.

I keep it pretty simple mainly because I haven't had the time and money to invest in a bunch of setups.

 

6-6 Medium action on a baitcaster: Top-water spooks, Small Spinners, Texas rigged soft plastics

6-9 Medium Heavy action on a baitcaster: Senkos, Jigs, Cranks, Buzzbaits, Spinnerbaits, Pitching rod/reel

6-0 Medium action with spinning gear: Weightless finesse worms, Road-runners, Beetle Spin, Crappie/Bream if bass aren't biting

Im in a yak so i only carry 5.

7' mh fast (abu so closer to heavy) for 1/2 oz jigs, tex rigs, etc

6'8" mh fast for 3/8 oz jigs, jerkbaits, tubes

7'6" mh med action for swimbait, heavy c rigs, a rig, punching

6'6" med fast for spooks, poppers, etc

7' med fast for stickbaits, weightless plastics, hair jigs etc.

These are primary uses but with only 5 rods you have to be flexible. I drop shot with the 6'6" rod and frog with the 7' for example, while it is not the ideal rod, it works and since I dont consider those my go to techniques they rank lower on my rod buying decisions.

Conventional:

baitcasters- 2 MHF and one crank bait specific 

Spinning- 1 MXF and 1 MF

 

Fly gear

2 set ups tops...9' 7 wt and sage bass II Largemouth which i believe is the equivalent of about a 10-11wt line

Jigs - 6'6" mh fast casting rod

T-rig - 6'6" h fast casting rod

Cranks and spinnerbaits - 6'6" mh moderate casting rod

Weightless plastics / shakey head - 6'6" m fast spinning rod

Drop shot / ultra light - 7'0" ml fast spinning rod

flipping and pitching rod

crankbait rod

spinnerbait rod

dropshot rod

senko rod

I can get away with these 5 rods for the majority of fishing situations. they double duty when needed. my flipping rod works well as a frog rod senko rod works for shakey heads.dropshot rod is great for wacky and spilt shot rigs.crankbait rod can be used for topwater.spinnerbait rod can fish large square bills and swim jigs in lighter vegetation. I normally take 8 rods when I go fishing but feel these 5 rods will handle everything but the largest swimbaits and deep diving cranks.

I like to have a jig, a spinnerbait, a medium diving crank, a deeper diving crank, a drop shot, and a senko or wacky jig on the deck for most "figuring it out" fishing.  You pick your favorite rods for this, though a couple M/F rods, a MH/F, a cranking stick, and a M/XF spinning rig will cover the bases.

for five rods:

 

1) 7'6"- 8' H/MH flippin stick  MF action ( use for flippin heavy jigs/ hollow body frogs in thick stuff)

 

2) 7' M-MH fast action very sensitive rod for jigs/t-rigs

 

3) 6'6" M-MH fast action for topwater/jerkbaits/ spinnerbaits

 

4) 7' medium power moderate action glass cranking rod

 

5) 7' ML spinning rod fast action needs to be sensitive for finesse techniques

 

A lot of guys on here including myself run 15-30 rods on deck so limiting to just 5 is not an easy thing to do, but if I had to this would probably be the basic set up.

 

Mitch

Just five? I use five from shore four spinning and one casting in the past. With rods I range from med/lt to xhvy/x fast.

5 is too many 2 is all you need

 

In my youth 1 rod.  Make unknown.  Length unknown...but no more than 6'6".  Power unknown.  Action unknown.  Mitchell 300 reel with 8# XL.  Artificial lures were inline spinners, Beetlespins and the occasional crankbait.  Artificial lures were too expensive.  Usually we were fishing bait we could catch or dig up.  Nightwalkers after a rain.  White grubs dug out of a farmer's dried cow pie pile.  Minnows from a nearby creek.  Bloodsuckers (small leeches) and crabs (some call crayfish...or crawfish...with one that had just molted and therefore having a soft shell being worth its weight in gold) picked up along the shore of the lake we were fishing.

I am in the camp of many rods on the deck, primarily because my boat has minimal rod storage.  Rods on top of the pile would be :

1 - a pitching rod

2 - a cranking rod

3 - a spinnerbait rod

4 - a bubba drop shot rod

5 - A spinning rod with braid.

 

I'll carry duplicates and back ups of all these rods plus a few extra, i.e. a wacky senko rod, a reg. drop shot rod, a dedicated rattle bait rod. a dedicated frog rod, an A-rig rod, a ned rig rod, plus several I'm sure I am forgetting.  A list like this is really handier for a tournament co-angler situation.  For weekly fun fishing, there isn't any reason to limit how many rods I take, so I don't.

Two too many in my opinion.

 

3 is all you need in most situations.........

 

1 - MH/F casting spooled with 50-65lb. braid - will handle jig-n-craws, texas-rigged plastics, topwater frogs, punching, tubes, craws, etc.

1 - MH/XF casting spooled with 12-17lb clear line of your choice - lighten the drag, works for CBs, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, blade baits, spoons, a-rigs, flukes, topwaters, jerkbaits, etc.

1 - M/XF spinning spooled with 12-20lb. braid and tipped with leader of choice - use for dropshot, weightless plastics, skipping, small, small topwaters, inline spinners and other finess applications. 

use the 7' MH-F as your primary bottom contact rod; plastics, jigs, etc.

use the spinning rod for any light weight baits.

add another MH-F casting rod, maybe shorter with a shorter handle for spinnerbaits, and jighead duty

add a M-F casting rod, 7' for lighter plastics; tubes, flukes, etc

add a casting crankbait rod, 7' M-MF for small cranks or a MH-M for deep cranks 

 

Those four casting rods and one spinning rod will cover a lot of bases. You can expand later into more application specific setups as your experience dictates.

 

Buy the best you can afford. It's better to buy one top shelf rod that you will use for a long time, than three lesser rods that you will replace as soon as you are able.

Rod selection changes upon the time of year, lake, pattern, weather etc.

If I was going in blind id probably roll with.

2x nrx 893c (texas rig and jig work in addition to many other purposes)

1x nrx 822syr (drop shot all purpose spinning)

1x nrx 852s jwr (finesse jigs, senkos, tubes etc)

1x nrx 803c (with mono spooled. Could get away with jerkbaits, cranks, topwater etc.)

My boat can hold well more than 5 however and I'd be leaving out way too many crucial rods/reels. These 5 limit heavy cover work, Frogging, dedicated drop shot and my crazy versatile cucx711mh. If I wanted to only have 5 I would have bought my rods differently. There's give and take to any rod I could swap in and out.

Which is why information mentioned in the beginning is crucial to rod selection on a given day.

This is what's in the locker and on deck on a typical day on the water for me.....all spinning:

1.  6'10" mag-lite/XF Dropshot

2.  6'9" ML/XF Dropshot

3.  7'6" ML/XF Dropshot

4.  6'10" M/XF Dropshot

5.  6'8" M/XF Tube

This is what's in the locker and on deck on a typical day on the water for me.....all spinning:

1.  6'10" mag-lite/XF Dropshot

2.  6'9" ML/XF Dropshot

3.  7'6" ML/XF Dropshot

4.  6'10" M/XF Dropshot

5.  6'8" M/XF Tube

Maybe you should try adding Dropshot to your list of techniques.    I hear it is effective.

Maybe you should try adding Dropshot to your list of techniques.    I hear it is effective.

 

I'm thinking about adding it to my 'techniques to learn' for next year.  If I do that, maybe there will be 5 DS rods listed!!  Tubes are just so.......yesterday!

 

5.  6'8" M/XF Tube

 

Red headed step child?

Red headed step child?

 

Yea, kinda.  I don't even possess that rod anymore.  Sold it in the middle of summer.  It's gonna be replaced with a 6'10" M/XF that may or may not be a dual purpose tube/DS rod.  Also replacing the the 69MLXF with a 610MLXF.......If I ever find the time to build them!  The #4 DS rod listed above was fished this year unfinished......just bare thread holding the guides on.

5 is too many 2 is all you need

"NEED" - had little to do with bass fishing, at least from what I've learned from folks on this forum.

If you like it & can afford it (your financials are your business) - fulfill that WANT and go for it!