How many rods is too many?

 

How many are there in your average Bass Pro Shop?

 

Too many to own, or to bring on the water?

On the boat I never bring more than four casting and two spinning set ups when I'm by myself. If a partner comes along I'll bring either three casting and one spinning, or two and two.

My brother-in-law takes 2 spinning rods while I usually have 4 baitcast rods.  This is in a 14 foot Gheenee.  I have taken 5 but that is too many.  If going by myself while at home, I will take 8-10 combos with me.  Occasionally one will be spinning, but usually all baitcast combos.  I fish from shore.  Two with me while I walk the shore is the norm.  I have done three, but I don't have that nifty gadget islandbass uses.

In my jon boat by myself 12 to 20 rods.  As a coangler 6 to 8. 

I fish out of an 8’ bass hunter boat, I bring 4 to 6 setups depending on the lake.

I take at least 9 in the Old Town.

A-Jay

I have 14 set ups.  I consistently use 6 of them:  4 baitcasters and 2 spinning.  I use 1/2 of that if fishing my kayak:  2 baitcasters, 1 spinning.

I have 27 fly rods.

 

Nine of them are 8 wt. rods.  But I'm selling two...that's good, right?

 

I don't even want to know how many gear rods I own.  It'd make my hair hurt.

Right now I have 9 rods. I’ll carry 2 or 3 when walking the bank. Out of a boat I’ll have 4 or 5 rods with me. It depends on the conditions out on the water. 

I have a total of 5 casting rods and 4 spinning rods (one for trout, one for catfish, and two for bass). My kids add in another 3 casting rods and 6 spinning rods between the two of them, and my youngest son will be getting his own MH+/F rod for jigs and soft plastics for his birthday this year so he can fish in some cover too.

 

My bass rods consist of a 7'1" H/F, 6'10" MH/F, 7'2" MH/MF, 7' M/MF, 6'8" M/XF and casting rods and 6'9" ML/XF and 7' M/F spinning rods, the latter of which my girlfriend uses far more than I do. Maybe I'll get her her own for her birthday since she is baitcaster challenged. Of the remaining rods, I rarely load them all into the truck. Assuming I am familiar with where I am fishing, I usually bring 2-3 of them based on the conditions I am fishing and what I expect to be fishing, and if I'm not sure, I may carry more. The only thing I'm really missing is a swimbait rod, and I don't have room in my truck so that will wait until I can buy a boat but aside from that I have most presentations covered nicely. The benefit of additional rods at this point would be so I can have multiple lures that require a similar style rod rigged up at the same time -- which is definitely going to wait until I get a boat.

 

10 hours ago, J Francho said:

I like to have at least two extra holders than rods.  That way, I have drop off location for unhooking a fish, or tying a new bait on.

I have a flushmount holder facing forward on my right side for that job. I can carry 9 in my truck's ceiling rack and 7 on the yak but i own like 20-25 including a few flyfishing setup and a couple of trout rods...

I have a bunch, the most I will take as a co-angler is 5. Sometimes it's 4 casting and 1 spinning and sometimes it's 5 casting. I can do everything I need with those 5.

You can never have too many!

I think I have around 20 combos.

 

AND WANT MORE....

I once saw a shore guy carrying around his garage rod rack, he had it set there on some flat shoreline, had probably a dozen rods there.

You have too many rods when you reach a point where you have rods you don't use regularly.

 

I have too many. I'm going to try my hand at unloading some of them. 

 

Couple of sayings: The best translation of the Bible is the one you read, and the most expensive rod you own is the one you don't use.

I cover 80% of my fishing with 4 combos. 2 spinning, 2 casting. The remaining 20% will be complete when I decide which heavy rod I'm going to buy. Right now I have ML through MH. You have to tie a few more knots the fewer rods you have, but I don't mind. I don't mind not having to go so far down that rabbit hole thinking "crap, I'm fishing for crappie, this rod should be 2 inches longer and they'll totally see this 6 pound mono." Nonsense. I'm not trying to start a fire here but I'm also not a tournament or commercial fisherman. 

 

The way I see it is this... bigger house, more furniture to fill it, more to clean, more space unused. 

 

I've always subscribed to keeping it simple though. Just my opinion of course. Everyone's got one. Take care. 

Bank fisher - 90% of time. 

 

Spinning rods: 5

Baitcaster Rods: 12

 

 

Just when I had every combo for every situation I needed, about 25, I went and broke my #1 topwater rod yesterday.  Oh the tragedy!!!  

If you’re in the back of the boat more than 5 can get tricky.

6 hours ago, Glaucus said:

You have too many rods when you reach a point where you have rods you don't use regularly.

 

I have too many. I'm going to try my hand at unloading some of them. 

 

Couple of sayings: The best translation of the Bible is the one you read, and the most expensive rod you own is the one you don't use.

When you start talking about how many rods you own instead of how many you take with you, then I am in the same boat.  Except I am not thinking of unloading some even tho I should.  It is worse with reels.  

Man all this thread has shown me is that I need more spinning setups.....

 

But currently I have 15 casting setups and 3 spinning that see regular use. I have another spinning that I don’t like so it sits in the corner. 

Having a fish and ski boat, there isn't enough deck space for rod storage.  This means you have to "store" them in the seating area, which can get awkward if there are too many and you have multiple people moving around the boat.  Because of this, I find it best to stick to around 6 rods in the boat at one time.  Maybe a couple more if i'm fishing alone.

 

On the kayak (Sun Dolphin, non-fishing kayak) i'll usually bring 3.  One in each rod holder and one in my lap.

 

Bank fishing i'll usually bring 2-3.  But that also negatively impacts your ability to move around.  So I often find myself wishing I had just brought one...

16 hours ago, Burke said:

Bank fisher - 90% of time. 

 

Spinning rods: 5

Baitcaster Rods: 12

 

 

How many do you actually bring on any given trip?  

I think I have around 20 combos, maybe 15 casting and 5 spinning.   I could pare down a bit as there are some I really like but almost never use. But for what it costs to ship a rod, it’s not really worth selling some of them.