On 6/5/2020 at 1:31 PM, NavyVet1204 said:

Easier said than done friend. She would rather I do it.

LOL....I'd rather somebody tied all my knots, and while we're at it re-spooled my reels and threaded my guides too. But alas, I haven't found anyone who will do it..

I have, I think, about 30 combos right now and I bring different stuff depending on where I'm going, what I am fishing for, and how I am planning to do it.

 

I bring a different set of combos if I'm trolling 60 ft. water for Striper than I would bring if I were throwing 1/8 oz. Vibrax spinners to the shore going after late season Hybrids.

 

That's just an extreme example but it is much the same no matter what. Sure you can manage to do a lot with a MH and a M caster and a ML spinner let's say, but you will be no where near to using the best set-up for each of them.

 

On any given day I'll bring 4 or 5 rods.

I thought I had too many rods and reels until I saw some posts in this thread.  

 

Here are my main setups.  And I fish probably 50/50 smallmouth and largemouth.  All of my reels are Daiwa and most of my rods are Dobyns.  Since reels are mostly interchangeable, I will stick to rods only. 

 

Spinning

702 Dobyns (medium lite)  shakey head, Neko, blade baits.  

741 Dobyns (lite action)- Ned rig and Hair jigs.  I almost always have a 1/15th oz Ned Rig tied on.

742 Dobyns (medium lite)- Dropshot, secondary Ned Rig, versatile rod

763 Dobyns (medium)- cracking tubes any other heavy spinning presentation.  I bought this rod for 1/2 oz tubes that I want to throw on spinning gear.  Most lures suitable for this rod I prefer to throw on a baitcaster.  Until I started cracking tubes I didn't think a medium action spinning rod had a place in a bass fishing arsenal.  Why not use a baitcaster instead.  And I'm not one of those anti-spinning rod guys.

792 (medium lite)- 3"-4" swimbaits on a ball head jig.  Love the longer length.  This rod because of its length is great for tubes and dropshot in open water.  Very versatile.  I use this rod for jigging lake trout and it is plenty stout.

 

Casting

843 GLoomis- (medium heavy) pitching plastics, dragging swimbaits- very versatile

844 GLoomis- (heavy) 3/8 oz pitching jigs, C-rigs, heavier T-rigs

703 Dobyns- (medium) senkos, pitching light plastics, 3.8 Keitechs

7' MH semi-fast Croix Tournament Bass- chatterbaits, swimjigs, buzzbaits, bigger topwater

704 Dobyns Crankbait rod- (medium) jerkbaits, smaller topwater, squarebills, smaller cranks

735 Dobyns (Heavy)- frogs, football head jigs, C-rigs, heavy scroungers- I have two of these rods since it covers a big part of my fishing tactics.

8' heavy BPS crankbait rod- 20' deep diving crankbaits.  I'll also use this for the couple times a year I throw an A-rig. 

Bolded my core rods.  

 

I have a few other rods that are backups but those are main rods in my arsenal.  I don't really punch mats or throw anything real, real heavy.  I am not much of a crankbait guy either.