If you're new to bass fishing, the number of rods on YouTube can feel overwhelming. Don’t worry — nobody starts with a giant arsenal! In this video, bass fishing legend I walk you through exactly which rods you actually need and why most beginners only need three setups to catch bass anywhere in the country.

With just three rods, you can confidently fish almost every technique in bass fishing — and I’ll show you how to expand from there when your budget allows.

I have thought about this and if I can only have three, I might swap out the H/F rod with a M/F rod instead. I guess it depends where you live.

1 hour ago, Boomstick said:

I have thought about this and if I can only have three, I might swap out the H/F rod with a M/F rod instead. I guess it depends where you live.

What would you be throwing on the medium? Where I fish in KS I can't really justify a H in my head either.

I'm in the process of downsizing my gear so trying to "think like a beginner" lol.

1 hour ago, Jweller said:

What would you be throwing on the medium? Where I fish in KS I can't really justify a H in my head either.

I'm in the process of downsizing my gear so trying to "think like a beginner" lol.

So here's my personal thoughts on this one. If you're starting out, you're probably fishing mostly from shore. Maybe you rent a kayak, canoe or row boat occasionally, but most of the time you're finding shore spots.

In my case, there's very limited areas that have very heavy cover that I can access from shore. Even from boat, those spots are very isolated, so a rod for heavy cover or frogs is something I'd add later. For people down south where the weeds grow year around, Glenn's recommendation of a H/F over a M/F is 100% spot on. It just depends where you live.

Having a MH/F and M/F rod have a little bit of overlap, but each have things they do better than the other.

Single hook baits like spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, swim jigs, smaller swimbaits, and football or pitching style jigs all work well on a MH/F rod.

A M/F rod may not be the #1 rod I'd use for most treble hook baits (besides jerkbaits, the fast tip helps detect bites on twitches), it is still a really good rod to throw anything with treble hooks, especially through grass. You can also throw some single hooked baits on them, they're great for lighter finesse jigs, or throwing weightless soft plastics (if there's not much wind anyway). Smaller spinnerbaits work well on a M/F rod. You can usually go up to 3/8oz, but there's a spot if I fish on a warm day the bass bite stops at 11am and then I throw a 1/4oz or 5/16oz spinnerbait and catch chain pickerel all day.

And just to clarify, when I say a M/F casting rod, I do mean one that runs slightly on the heavy side, which is common among bass rods. Something like the St Croix Mojo Bass 7'1" M/F "plastics" rod is perfect. Daiwa M/F rods should work fine here too (among others).

Then there is some overlap between them as well. Both rods will throw a Texas rigged soft plastic well. You can decide which rod to use based on factors like what cover you're in, or are you dragging on rocks? If so you may run thicker line with your MH/F rod, so that may be a better choice. And if neither of those are a factor, if it's a bright windy day and you want to try a spinnerbait and a T-rig, then you can use the T-rig on your M/F rod. Or if you want a crankbait or popper and a T-rig, then you can use the MH/F rod with the T-rig.

Hope that helps put it into perspective.

10 minutes ago, Boomstick said:

So here's my personal thoughts on this one. If you're starting out, you're probably fishing mostly from shore. Maybe you rent a kayak, canoe or row boat occasionally, but most of the time you're finding shore spots.

In my case, there's very limited areas that have very heavy cover that I can access from shore. Even from boat, those spots are very isolated, so a rod for heavy cover or frogs is something I'd add later. For people down south where the weeds grow year around, Glenn's recommendation of a H/F over a M/F is 100% spot on. It just depends where you live.

Having a MH/F and M/F rod have a little bit of overlap, but each have things they do better than the other.

Single hook baits like spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, swim jigs, smaller swimbaits, and football or pitching style jigs all work well on a MH/F rod.

A M/F rod may not be the #1 rod I'd use for most treble hook baits (besides jerkbaits, the fast tip helps detect bites on twitches), it is still a really good rod to throw anything with treble hooks, especially through grass. You can also throw some single hooked baits on them, they're great for lighter finesse jigs, or throwing weightless soft plastics (if there's not much wind anyway). Smaller spinnerbaits work well on a M/F rod. You can usually go up to 3/8oz, but there's a spot if I fish on a warm day the bass bite stops at 11am and then I throw a 1/4oz or 5/16oz spinnerbait and catch chain pickerel all day.

And just to clarify, when I say a M/F casting rod, I do mean one that runs slightly on the heavy side, which is common among bass rods. Something like the St Croix Mojo Bass 7'1" M/F "plastics" rod is perfect. Daiwa M/F rods should work fine here too (among others).

Then there is some overlap between them as well. Both rods will throw a Texas rigged soft plastic well. You can decide which rod to use based on factors like what cover you're in, or are you dragging on rocks? If so you may run thicker line with your MH/F rod, so that may be a better choice. And if neither of those are a factor, if it's a bright windy day and you want to try a spinnerbait and a T-rig, then you can use the T-rig on your M/F rod. Or if you want a crankbait or popper and a T-rig, then you can use the MH/F rod with the T-rig.

Hope that helps put it into perspective.

This is actually incredibly helpful! I'm a kayak guy but tired of drowning in gear. Would you go M spinning or ML?

1 hour ago, Jweller said:

This is actually incredibly helpful! I'm a kayak guy but tired of drowning in gear. Would you go M spinning or ML?

Was a kayak guy for 5 years in the southeast around Tennessee/Georgia/Carolinas. I own 3 spinning rods and really only use two. 852 and Steez the 7’6 mml.

I don’t like throwing hard baits on spinning gear so jerks and light cranks are casting exclusive even from a kayak. Depending on where you fish the ML will cover your neds and light jdm stuff or a dedicated vertical drop shot rod. Now if that part of your fishing arsenal is small or nonexistent I’d just skip it entirely. I don’t fish a shaking minnow, neds, or really anything under 1/4 oz weight plus plastic regularly. For those weights my 843 or st croix medium are more than capable.

If you’re me, a ML stick like the st croix 7’ML I own just doesn’t see action. While it’s fantastic at the baits it’s built for I don’t enjoy fishing them.

Think about the fishing you like to do, not finding a use for a rod that throws baits you bought because the internet says they are great. Tighten up your combos until you’re fishing what you want to fish every time you grab something off the deck. You’ll quickly narrow down what you really need and can swap the others into more of the good stuff.

9 hours ago, Jweller said:

This is actually incredibly helpful! I'm a kayak guy but tired of drowning in gear. Would you go M spinning or ML?

If I was trying to build an arsenal that could throw anything, I would lean towards go with a ML/XF, one that preferably runs a little bit on the heavy side. I have a 6'9" St Croix Avid X and my kid has a Victory 6'10" ML/XF and those are perfect, definitely not quite a medium but on the heavier side of medium light. There is also a Mojo Bass version of the 6'10" Victory. I have a Daiwa Tatula Elite Code Meyer ML/F and that runs a bit lighter, which was what I wanted to throw ned rigs better.

When you get into M/F rods, there's finesse mediums and more powerful mediums that are basically on par with their casting variants. And to make things even more confusing sometimes the same brand offers both variants, sometimes in the same line of rods, one example is the St Croix The Victory 7'1 M/F is a heavier rod but the 7'3" is a finesse medium. The line rating or lure rating usually tells you which is which, with the St Croix it's the lure weight rating.

I have a Daiwa Tatula Elite Brent Ehrler dropshot rod that fits the finesse medium category that is generally my all purpose spinning rod, except it doesn't cast a 1/16oz ned rig nearly as far as my ML rods. But it's also great for shaky heads and weightless senkos and other things that generally prefer a medium rod, but is usually rigged with a drop shot and it has a little more power than a ML rod to pull them up into the boat, and given how many months of the year that's my bread and butter bait, that makes a solid argument to get a finesse M/F rod over a ML/XF.

What's better will really depend what you're trying to do.

"Don't buy 20 rods" a little late for that, @Glenn 😅

Great video to counter most sponsored content (disclosed and otherwise) out there.