Go to setups for bass

[austinF]

Hey guys,

I wonder what are your 3 basic go to setups for lm bass fishing.

I’m still a somewhat beginner at bass fishing and looking for more bass fishing tips and techniques. So it will be better to answer it in detail like what lures and line you use.

Thanks in advance.

[mbtharp1]

7' medium spinning rod, 15lb braided line with 8lb fluoro leader, good for shaky heads, wacky rigs, drop shots, lighter baits.

 

7' medium moderate action baitcasting rod, 6:1 gear ratio reel,  12-15lb copolymer line, good for shallow/medium crankbaits, topwater walking baits, poppers.

 

7'2" Medium heavy fast action baitcasting rod, 7:1 gear ratio reel, 17lb fluorocarbon line. Good for fishing jigs, texas rigs, swing heads, chatterbaits, and spinnerbaits.

 

I got by for a long time with 3 set ups like this and it worked really well.

[Catt]

Texas Rig

Jig-n-Craw

Topwater 

Spinnerbait/Rat-L-Trap

 

Rod-n-reels: Dealers choice ?

[Deleted account]

7' MH fast, 6'6" Med fast, 6'3'', spinning med fast. You can fish 95% of bass baits with these 3 or something similar.

[GoneFishingLTN]

If you do not have a Swimbait rod  for Swimbaits with trebles. what would you use until you got one?

[Troy85]

My top 3

1. Texas Rig

2. Spinnerbait

3.Top Water

 

As far as a rod for baits with trebles, I prefer a rod with a "moderate" action.  It  should be printed somewhere on the rod what the power and action is.

[ZebcoZak]

I have a:

 

7' MH Fast for T-Rigs, Jigs and other bottom contact presentations

7' MH Moderate for treble hook lures like crank baits - also toss chatter baits and spinners from time to time on this.

6'10" ML Xtra Fast spinning rod for finesse like ned rig, drop shot, light shaky head, weightless senkos

 

Rarely do I need anything other than this in my bass lakes...

 

I don't spend a lot of money on my treble hook lures like crank baits because they are naturally less sensitive anyways due to the action.  If you are going to spend the big bucks, use it for finesse and bottom contact rods.  You need the sensitivity there much more than for cranks...

 

[GrumpyOlPhartte]

@GoneFishingLTN: I guess I would have to know the weight of the swimbaits you are interested in throwing. In my case I currently am limited to smaller lures (under two ounces). I do have a 7’2” rod (advertised as a frog/swimbait rod)which does handle small S-Wavers and Shine Glides Because of the weedy areas I fish, I expect this will only work in the early spring before the weeds become an issue. The rod is an Okuma TCS and has worked also worked very well with jigs and large T-rigs as well as my few swimbaits. (The most important thing, in my opinion, is to limit the weight of your swimbaits to the capacity of the rod until you get a rod designed specifically for larger swimbaits or switch to soft swimbaits. They can be killers too!

 

@austinF: I agree with the above recommendations although my spinning rod is a 6’8” ML/F.  Lets me experiment with small jigs, drop-shot, wacky rigs, and jerk baits for cold weather here in Massachusetts. I suspect that rod might be a little too light for most folks. I do have a M/F spinning rod to which I can swap my spinning reel later in the year.  As the weeds emerge I will probably switch to the M/F rod if I have a want mto use spinning gear. 

 

Due to the unique fishing conditions here and my limited experience with anything other than frogs and weedless soft baits, I would take all this with a grain, if not shaker, of salt!!! Good luck to both of you.

[roadwarrior]

 

[GoneFishingLTN]

5 minutes ago, GrumpyOlPhartte said:

@GoneFishingLTN: I guess I would have to know the weight of the swimbaits you are interested in throwing. In my case I currently am limited to smaller lures (under two ounces). I do have a 7’2” rod (advertised as a frog/swimbait rod)which does handle small S-Wavers and Shine Glides Because of the weedy areas I fish, I expect this will only work in the early spring before the weeds become an issue. The rod is an Okuma TCS and has worked also worked very well with jigs and large T-rigs as well as my few swimbaits. (The most important thing, in my opinion, is to limit the weight of your swimbaits to the capacity of the rod until you get a rod designed specifically for larger swimbaits or switch to soft swimbaits. They can be killers too!

 

@austinF: I agree with the above recommendations although my spinning rod is a 6’8” ML/F.  Lets me experiment with small jigs, drop-shot, wacky rigs, and jerk baits for cold weather here in Massachusetts. I suspect that rod might be a little too light for most folks. I do have a M/F spinning rod to which I can swap my spinning reel later in the year.  As the weeds emerge I will probably switch to the M/F rod if I have a want mto use spinning gear. 

 

Due to the unique fishing conditions here and my limited experience with anything other than frogs and weedless soft baits, I would take all this with a grain, if not shaker, of salt!!! Good luck to both of you.

 

I would be throwing a River2sea 168 and 200 I was thinking of using my 7 foot 10 mh kvd cranking rod

[Dens228]

If I was going only three I'd go

 

1.  T-rig for plastics on a MH/Fast

2. Crank/jerk bait on a M/Moderate

3.  Spinnerbait/chatterbait on a MH/Fast

 

If I'm going someplace with a lot of weeds and mats I'd switch out #2 for a H/Fast for topwater frogs

[Riazuli]

M/F for all around applications and plastics, jerkbaits, lighter topwaters

 

MH/F for spinnerbait, chatterbait, jigs, heavier cranks, spooks, frogs

 

M/M for most of my cranking 

[DropShotHotShot]

For starting out, I recommend 2 rods.

 

1. a wacky or texas rigged weightless senko. Spinning or Casting rod, depending on what your comfort level is.  I prefer a bait caster, but a spinning works well too.  Throw it next to any visable cover, let it sit, set the hook!

 

2. have some type of moving bait to cover water, swim bait, spinner bait or swim jig.  I prefer a 7' Med fast bait caster for this. 

[JFlynn97]

Currently I only have three rods but I've found them to cover pretty much all of my applications.

 

6'9" medium-light/fast, 8lb braid used for finesse applications

7' medium-heavy/fast, 6.4:1 casting reel, 30lb braid and 15lb fluoro leader when necessary, used for moving baits (spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, crankbaits, buzzbaits, etc)

7'3" heavy/fast, 8.1:1 casting reel, 30-50lb braid and 15-20lb fluoro leader when necessary, used for texas rigs, jigs, bottom baits, frogs.

 

So far I haven't found a lure I can't reliably use on these rods

[RB 77]

1 hour ago, Troy1985s said:

My top 3

1. Texas Rig

2. Spinnerbait

3.Top Water

 

As far as a rod for baits with trebles, I prefer a rod with a "moderate" action.  It  should be printed somewhere on the rod what the power and action is.

 

Yup

[Darren.]

These days I will have, if I take 3 rods:

 

1) Wacky rig setup (spinning)

2) Ned rig setup (spinning)

3) TX rig, jig, swimbait (spinning or casting)

 

The third being a variable setup, one I'll change

out if the other two aren't working well.

[austinF]

Thanks for all the answers to this thread. I knew that i would likely get conflicting answers when asking these questions of a number of fishermen. Seems like things are getting more complicated. Lol

[bigfruits]

asking about go to rods is very specific to where a person lives and fishes. where do you live and what are your lakes/rivers like?

 

if i only had 3 rods for largemouth bass fishing id have a medium, medium heavy and heavy. all fast action about 7'. id pass on the deep cranks.

 

M - shakey head, senko, small topwater, jerkbaits, shallow to med depth cranks, squarebills, lipless in open water, small paddletails

MH - jigs, t-rig, bladed jigs, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, lipless in grass, larger topwater/cranks/paddletails

H - pitching jigs/t-rig to cover, carolina rig, frogs, small hard swimbaits

[Will1248]

@austinFThis is the budget anglers 3 rod system for cheap effective and long lasting gear.

If you want all purpose rigs the 6'6" M action F tip with a 6.2:1 reel with 8lb Trilene XL(best casting distance for the price) is for everything which you have, so two things a stout 7' Medium Heavy action Fast tip rod with a 7.1:1-6.2:1 reel ratio baitcaster with 12lb Berkeley Big Game mono(or flouro but this is cheap it works fantastic and lasts longer). This rod covers jigs, worms, spinnerbaits, smaller swimbaits, bigger jerkbaits and more, but can be used for frogs, flipping and pitching light cover if you want to swing that way(joke intended) until you want to upgrade to a 7'6" Heavy action Xtra fast tip for the 2oz artillery weights for really punching through thick grass. And after that personally I would recommend a 7' Medium Heavy action Moderate tip for crankbaits and a few odd baits. With a 5.4:1 gear baitcaster spooled with 10-12lb FLOUROCARBON(absolute must for deep crankbaits). 

 

S 6'6" M action F tip with a 6.2:1 6-10lb(8 is best from much experience)

C 7' Medium Heavy action Fast tip 7.1:1-6.2:1 10-12lb

C 7' Medium Heavy action Moderate 5.4:1  10-12lb

 

Now the crankbait rod can be a Medium action but if you plan to throw any crankbait deeper than 12ft or a squarebill over an ounce then stay with the MH  or else you will have a  workout and possibly break a rod or reel(strips the drag). So initially a Med. Mod isnt advised. Moveover, look for a very "noodley" rod with a very moderate tip but with a decent backbone so you can fish smaller cranks and not have them pop out and fly toward your face. All this being said I reccomend 

 

Lews Laser MG Speed Spool baitcasters

 

they run about $80 but are hands down the best bang for your buck reel in the medium price range of $50-100 and they last forever. 

 

For the rods I reccomend 

 

Lews David Fritts Perfect Crankbait rod

 

also $80 (they actually have a new combo out called the Crankback for $100 with the right reel instead of a $160 set up) They are very limber, light and set hooks very well again a great bang for your buck.

 

Lastly an Abu Garcia Vendetta 7' MH Ftip rod is very stiff, has a solid backbone and if you catch it right you can get them for $30 but normally about $70. 

 

All of these rods will fish pretty much anything you want besides alabama rigs. The spinning and the worm rod are really all you need but if you like crankbaits at all and will fish for hours at a time, if you have the money just get a crankbait rod they help so much and make it more fun instead of a chore. 

 

This is all suggestions and just an opinion. Hope that I helped.

 

-Will

[FishDewd]

I'm pretty simple because I only really have 5 good reel/rod combos ready to go at any time, but I like to take 3 specific for when I (try to) bass fish. #1 is my favorite: I use a recently acquired 6'6" ML/fast carbonlite 2.0 rod with a 7.0 KK Royale Legend baitcast reel, 50 lb hi-vis yellow stealth braid to a 10-15 lb. fluoro leader, for weightless or light plastics. This is my ned rig and texas rig rod. It has the throwing distance, the sensitivity, and spine power for most of my smaller pond and lake fishing needs. #2, I have a 6'9" medium-fast rod that is closer to a MH/mod with a 6.4 Abu C4 conventional reel that I use for drop shotting, larger crankbaits, or carolina rigging needs. #3 is a 7' medium/fast rod with a spinning 6.2 2500 reel that I can use for a variety of uses, but these days I use it a lot for lipless crankbaits and small er square bills. What I am missing is a true MH combo for punching or frogging, but opportunities to do that doesn't present themselves very often around here. I do do have one other pole for drifitng that I sometimes use up north on the clear rivers to target primarily trout, as well as a few other set-ups for catfishing and perch catching.