Hello and thanks in advance for your advice.

I have a ton of experience fishing all kinds of saltwater, stripers, walleye, smallmouth, musky, and panfish.

My weakest and least experienced species is Largemouth bass.

I am trying to refine a quiver that will allow me to fish every technique I will use in this part of the country.

I live in the west, and fish Lakes Mead, Mohave, Havsu, Arizona, some Utah and Cali.

I have not seen lillypads since leaving Minnesota, so I don't really need a frog/punch setup, at least for now.

I am thinking these 5 rods will be able to do everything I need to do pretty darn well:

I have m/l dropshot setup, and I have a Calstar GX8 I love for my bigger baits, andI just got an NRX+ 894 JWR.

I am thinking adding these two setups would round out the quiver:

IMX Pro at 855 or 906 CBR

NRX+.842C

So my spin on the setup question is, what are the holes in this quiver, what can I NOT do well with these 5?

Thank you again for any input.

LOL, I guess something about my post was offputting.

Just for others, I will update the setups I went with, and my progress in case others find themselves in a similar situation.

I went to the Pacific Coast Sportfishing show hoping to fondle all the Loomis rods I was considering, and Shimano had a quadruple sized booth, but did not bring any of the rods I was hoping to check out. The sles manager was a great guy, who gave me excellent insight, but I was pretty disappointed... my thinking was they would bring everything, and then let us go to their dealers to buy ... live and learn. They did not bring a single conquest, or even an NRX= in MBR...

I ended up ordering the Conquest 903c MBR.

This is the current plan for the year:

Loomis GCX 872C and Metanium Shallow Edition, braid to 8lb flouro (FG knot) for finesse bass fishing.

NRX+ 894C JWR with Curado DC 150 8.5 braid to 15 lb flouro (FG knot) for jigs and worms/bottom contact

Phenix XG-2 AND Curado DC 150 6.2 braid to 10 lb mono (FG knot) for crankbaits

Loomis Conquest 803C MBR and Metanium DC 70 HG 12 lb Flouro for Chatter, spinner, all-around

Calstar GX8 and Curado 200 DC Braid to 20 lb flouro for 1-4 ounce wake/glide/swimbaits.

Hope to get my first bass over 3 lbs this year, will keep updating the journal for posterity, hahaha.

I like to help but in this case I'm helpless. 😁 Your budget is way above mine.

You're looking at beautiful gear. Super high end stuff that offers extraordinary sensitivity, dialed-in deflection and light weight.

But none of that guarantees much better likelihood of catching fish. The path to that is...
-> Find fish (most important)
-> Show fish bait they're interested in (bait selection is an art, not a $ thing)
-> Make that bait move in an appealing way (gear can start to matter a little here)
-> Land fish (this is where your gear really matters, especially if the fish is large)

For largemouth bass, unless you're targeting large fish (I.e. bigger than 6 lbs) equipment has a diminishing return on investment. Meaning landing small to medium sized fish isn't improved by using higher priced gear, IMO.

That said, nice stuff is awesome, but it doesn't really correlate to more/better LMB (see Matt Robinson of the Bassmaster Elite series making taking 3rd place at Guntersville using an Ugly Stick).

So to answer your question: Your rod selection is amazing and you'll have most bases fully covered - so if it works for your budget, then run with it. But the most important thing is to put time on the water and feel the process. That feel will then inform your subsequent solutions/purchases.

Have fun with the process and welcome to the site.

After years trying to plug holes in my quiver I ultimately just settled on optimizing my setups for my 5+/- favorite confidence lures or techniques. I find my fishing experience much more enjoyable this way instead of trying to cover every inevitability. Here's an old stickie thread you may find helpful https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/130634-rod-selection-the-basics/

Basically a Bottom contact setup (jigs/worms), a cranking setup, and a finesse setup should cover around 75% of bass fishing scenarios. From what I can tell your picks should serve you well and then some. I'd add just the cranking setup, then just fish and let the waters tell you what you need.

16 hours ago, Bass Rutten said:

After years trying to plug holes in my quiver I ultimately just settled on optimizing my setups for my 5+/- favorite confidence lures or techniques. I find my fishing experience much more enjoyable this way instead of trying to cover every inevitability. Here's an old stickie thread you may find helpful https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/130634-rod-selection-the-basics/

Basically a Bottom contact setup (jigs/worms), a cranking setup, and a finesse setup should cover around 75% of bass fishing scenarios. From what I can tell your picks should serve you well and then some. I'd add just the cranking setup, then just fish and let the waters tell you what you need.

That old stickie helped me follow the same process recently. I was too lost in having too much specific stuff for techniques I rarely use. Too much good gear sitting around. Sold some stuff off and optimized into 5 quality setups I use all the time for my favourite techniques. Has been a pleasure and I focus more on fishing now vs gear. Looks like the op is in the right track for sure. I see you have some Loomis stuff in my case I have SJR 721 & 782 spinning and MBR 782, 783, 844 casting. These 5 cover everything for me from light to heavy in my waters. Your plan seems solid, finesse covered, JWR will be versatile, add something for moving baits maybe and drive on

Thank you all for your help!

Got my 3 biggest bass of all time (3.2, 3.5, 4.1 lbs) so far this spring! Thank you for the help!!!

All came in April on Lake Mohave.