Organizing your arsenal?

[The Baron]

Not sure this is the right forum… but I’m wondering how everyone else approaches organizing your arsenal of rods/reels.  I really plunged back into bass fishing only a few years ago.  I’m blessed with a good job and a little disposable income so have been adding rods and reels more or less ad hoc as I want to dial in technique specific setups. This has led me to amass 16 rods and 14 reels (I’m in Canada, so that’s split almost down the middle for spinning/baitcasters).  All are of good quality but somewhere along the way whatever plan I had degraded and I feel like I’ve got a random assortment.  When I start adding in line choices I feel almost overwhelmed with options.  Complicate this with the fact my kids like to fish, so I at times need duplicates if we both want to fish the same way on a given day.
 

So, for those blessed to be able to line the deck with combos - how do you go about choosing and organizing your combos?   Maybe just have a “perfect” setup for the 1/2doz. favorite presentations and a few floaters for the rest?  

The second aspect is related, being when you’re headed to Lake X how to you decide what to bring without having the boat look like a hardware store of combos that don’t even get used?  Do you ever just say I’m frog fishing and that’s it, or I’m fishing these three ways and that’s it?

 

This is very much a first-world problem, I know, but I’m still curious. lol

[A-Jay]

Not sure if this is what you're looking for but here's a clip of how I set up my rig.

Hope it helps

A-Jay 

[the reel ess]

https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/rod-reel-setups.html

 

I used this approach for building an arsenal. I have since added a couple combos and a technique specific frog rod. I usually take 6-7 rods with me on the kayak. It has built-in rod holders and I have a crate with 6 more zip tied in.

[Captain Phil]

At the present time, I own about a dozen rod and reel combos.  Each one is for a specific individual tactic.   It is nearly impossible to haul all of them with me at once.  When I was fishing tournaments, I carried at least 8 with backups in my rod locker.  Now that I fish for fun, I know in advance what works best at each lake and bring what I expect to need.  If I am going to fish a clear spring fed lake, my tackle choices will be different than a large murky lake.  I believe you could get by with 3 combos in a pinch.   One lighter casting rod, one heavier longer casting rod and one spinning outfit for finesse fishing.  You would be cutting and tying a bunch, but you could get by.

[Bird]

I keep 12 combos in the rod locker and rarely have more than 5 out at a time.

Once I've found what bait the fish want I'll clear the deck and fish that one bait.

 

90% of the water I fish I've fished many times before a have some idea of how and what to start out with.

Pre-rig everything the evening before a trip.

Seems like every year a certain bait will make my life less complicated and out perform other baits that I consider confidence baits.

So that particular combo is always stored at the top of the rod locker.

 

If you don't already, get yourself some rod sleeves.....life savers.

[A-Jay]

6 hours ago, Bird said:

 

If you don't already, get yourself some rod sleeves.....life savers.

X2

Agreed, they really help this OG try and keep track of my rigs.

A-Jay

[you]

I fish from a sit-in kayak, so the rods on deck are limited to about three. Four gets a little too crowded.

 

This forces me to pick combos by weight and versatility rather than specific techniques. For the lakes and rivers I fish, this typically means ultralight, light, and medium spinning setups (one each). I'll rig leaders and lures after I decide where I'm fishing, based on past experience, weather, season, water level, etc.

 

For saltwater, it's usually two medium spinning setups and maybe a heavier baitcasting setup for live bait rigs. Sometimes, I'll bring an ultralight or a fly rod instead for multi-species fishing.

[The Baron]

@A-Jay Are those rod sleeves colour coded? ?  I’m stealing that idea - colour coded by rod ratings, maybe?

[Bankc]

I carry six combos with me in my kayak and take full blame for not catching enough fish.  If I can't catch fish with those six options, it's not because I don't have enough gear.  

 

I get why pros would need a bunch.  If your livelihood depends on it, it makes more sense to perfect everything down to the tiniest nuance.  And you're probably getting all of that stuff for free or even being paid to use it.  For them, a single missed fish over the course of a year could make a huge difference in their income.  

 

But for people like me, too much gear focuses your attention on your gear instead of on the fish where your attention belongs.  They call it "good enough" for a reason.  

[A-Jay]

43 minutes ago, The Baron said:

@A-Jay Are those rod sleeves colour coded? ?  I’m stealing that idea - colour coded by rod ratings, maybe?

Yes - Big Time.

For example:

Red on casting rods is MH Mod with 15 lb FC

Blue on casting rods is MH Fast also with 15 lb FC

Yellow on Spinning gear is 7 ft M fast with 10 lb braid and 10 lb Mono or FC leader.  FC is clear and the mono used for topwater is green. 

Good Luck

A-Jay

 

[Skunkmaster-k]

I can comfortably keep 3 rods on the deck of my boat. A 7’ MHF casting rod with 15# mono, 7’ MF spinning rod with 10# mono , 5’10” ML spinning with 6# mono. Easy to remember and Way less clutter to trip on. 

[Darth-Baiter]

i am kinda just starting.  i was just buying rods to fish.  really not focusing on matching techiques to gear.  i did well.  well for me at least.  

 

i recently did some soul searching and decided my favorite technique.  i bought a dedicated rod and reel for it, and i spent real money.  luckily a rod just snapped in two, so i was net neutral as far as rods go.  i built a wall-attached rod rack and purposely only allowed 11 combos to fit.  i will stay within those numbers.  one comes in, one goes out.  

 

now i am trying to figure out my SECOND favorite techique.  i'll drop another chunk of cash when i can.  soon.  

 

and repeat.  i hope to only have 5 total when i am done.  5-6 killer set ups.  streamline.  i just dont like a lot of stuff in my personal inventory.  all of it.  i am bare minimum in kitchen gear, car tools, cars...bikes.  all of it.  huge piles of crap makes me anxious. 

[Big Hands]

3 hours ago, The Baron said:

I’m blessed with a good job and a little disposable income so have been adding rods and reels more or less ad hoc as I want to dial in technique specific setups. This has led me to amass 16 rods and 14 reels (I’m in Canada, so that’s split almost down the middle for spinning/baitcasters).  All are of good quality but somewhere along the way whatever plan I had degraded and I feel like I’ve got a random assortment.  When I start adding in line choices I feel almost overwhelmed with options.  Complicate this with the fact my kids like to fish, so I at times need duplicates if we both want to fish the same way on a given day.

 

You and I are remarkably similar in the ways listed above, except that I view the randomness of my assortment as a plus. I don't want to feel like I need to match a set line of rods because they'll match on the deck. And, I haven't found a series of rods that really does what I want each individual rod to do as well for me as having the freedom to get exactly the rod I prefer for a specific use regardless of brand and series. I will admit to trying to do that to some extent, and will also say that I found that approach not to my personal liking (with one exception) for what I do and where I do it. 

 

The exception being the Phenix X series rods of which I do have three of (X-14T, X-13 and X-12) and I like them as a series that does what I want for crankbait/hardbait fishing. 

 

I also have three Daiwa Kage rods, but they are very different and not really close to each other or related as one is a 8'6" big swimbait rod, a 7'3" MH/F casting rod and a 6'10" M/F spinning rod. The rest of my rods are a total Heinz 57 type assortment of unrelated Shimano, Daiwa, Phenix, St. Croix and Californian (a Turners Outdoorsman house brand that uses Phenix blanks).

 

My reels are all either Daiwa or Shimano except for one ABU Garcia casting reel. 

 

I am pretty satisfied with my rag-tag arsenal. It works for me. I can do most anything I would do pretty well, and in the techniques I employ often, very well. I have some overlap in the event that I either want to have rods/reels for my kids to use or when I want to use two different approaches that require similar setups when by myself.

 

Still, we are all different in what we do, how we do it, and what about doing it gives us enjoyment. I had a friend that had (among his extensive collection) three sets of rods all wrapped on identical blanks, but one set was wrapped in red, another in green, and another in blue. The reels had color matching spools and line on them. He loved being able to have those matched sets on his deck depending on what line color he thought would be best. 

 

3 hours ago, The Baron said:

So, for those blessed to be able to line the deck with combos - how do you go about choosing and organizing your combos?   Maybe just have a “perfect” setup for the 1/2doz. favorite presentations and a few floaters for the rest?  

 

I usually take 3-5 rods with me on a given outing and try to fish what I had in mind when I chose them. Occasionally I will find myself wishing I had chosen differently, but that often. I also only usually take my one satchel that holds five 3700 size boxes. The times when I do add to that would be if I am struggling to key in on the bite. The more dialed in I am, the less tackle and rods I can bring and since I have limited space for storage for rods and gear, the less I bring the better I can move around and have less clutter to deal with. The ramp is less than three miles from my door. If I chose wrong, I could go back to get something or just reload for another day.

 

There are usually a couple of rods that make the cut on most days like my 7'6" St. Croix hair jig spinning rod for throwing weightless Senkos from April to October, and my 7'3" Kage MH/F casting rod which is pretty versatile all year long. 

 

3 hours ago, The Baron said:

The second aspect is related, being when you’re headed to Lake X how to you decide what to bring without having the boat look like a hardware store of combos that don’t even get used?  Do you ever just say I’m frog fishing and that’s it, or I’m fishing these three ways and that’s it?

 

Nothing of value to contribute here as I almost never fish different water because of the Quagga restrictions in Kalifornia. I travel to Texas to fish more often than I fish lakes that are 20-60 miles from where I live, and I use my buddy's rods and reels when I travel to fish.

 

3 hours ago, The Baron said:

This is very much a first-world problem, I know, but I’m still curious. lol

 

We are fortunate in that respect, even though some are more fortunate than others ;~) and I think that makes you like >99% of us. 

 

2 hours ago, The Baron said:

@A-Jay Are those rod sleeves colour coded? ?  I’m stealing that idea - colour coded by rod ratings, maybe?

 

There is no way on earth that could be a coincidence ? I think some of us have a gift for making the whole rig and it's contents very functional as well as aesthetically pleasing and I am not that person. . . . but A-Jay clearly is one of those people, and his results speak for themselves.

 

40 minutes ago, Darth-Baiter said:

i built a wall-attached rod rack and purposely only allowed 11 combos to fit.  i will stay within those numbers.  one comes in, one goes out.

 

I have told myself that too. Turns out that I lied.

[WRB]

It’s easy to get over your head in tackle because trying something new is a big part of bass fishing. The problem is complicated when you don’t sell off the tackle no longer being used.

Kids, I started off with special rods and reel he could use effectively then let him used my tackle as his skills improved.

Doubling up on popular tackle adds up fast!

When I had a boat (most of my life) my rods and reels were;

3 each casting jig & worm combos, all the same length and action. 1 rig for T-rigged bullet wt/bead and 2 for jigs.

3 each casting crank bait rods, 1 for medium divers and 2 for deep divers. Same reel and line with a snap.

2 each casting top water rods, 1 7’ MH general use and 6’8” for jerk, poppers and dog walking.

2 casting swimbait 7’10” MH and 8’ XH, same reels and line.

1 casting rod for Spoons and misc lures, same reels as crank baits.

4 Spinning Finesse combo’s, same reels, 2 with Copoly & 2 with FC.

15 combos 90% of the time.

If going to the Delta of Clear lake added frog and braid line casting 7’5” rod.

I use rod sleeves and terry bath towels to cushion the reels because my rod locker was open, no rod tubes.

Rarely had more then 6 combos on the deck, 2 in the back and 4 up front.

Kept my lures organized In labeled Plano boxes and clips that held hanging soft plastic bags, soft bags and custom swimbait boxes.  Basically a floating tackle shop.

Today I have 2 casting combos, 1 jig & worm  custom MH+F and 1 MF, 2 different reels.

3 spinning, 1 w/FC, 1 with braid/copoly and 1 with copoly.

Tom

 

 

[Captain Phil]

4 hours ago, A-Jay said:

 

This photo reminds me of something that happened about 25 years ago.  I entered a State Federation tournament on Lake Toho.  I entered as a nonboater so a good friend of mine could fish out of his boat.  My friend ended up winning the State Championship twice, but that's another story.  The boater I drew has impressive.  He didn't talk much.  When I got to his boat, he had a top-of-the-line Ranger with enough electronics to launch a trip to Mars. When he opened his rod locker, I almost fell over.  Hanging under the lids where what looked like dozens of Loomis rods, all of them rigged with Shimano Metanium reels.  He must have had well over $10K in rods and reels on board.  A nasty cold front came through the night before, which shut down the fish big time.  We ran down to Brown's Point and he started to flip grass.  He front ended me so bad that I had no place to fish.  I looked around and there were some 6-10 foot bare spots within casting distance.  I took out a $4 chrome Tiny Torpedo and started to fan cast around the boat with my spinning rod.  Bass after bass came up through the bare spots and in no time I had my limit.  While this was going down, the big money boater started looking through his hatches trying to find something that would work.  He eventually caught a couple of small fish on a Rapala.  Having money is a good thing. On that day, knowing what to do with it was better.

[The Baron]

@Captain Phil  That’s hilarious.  I can say that, so far, I’ve caught no more fish this year from a bass boat with 5-6 rod combos and every lure I own at my disposal, than I did last year in a canoe with 3-4 combos on hand and one tackle bag.  But, by golly, I sure am more comfortable and the fancy sonar can keep me entertained for hours!?

 

@Big Hands  Yes, sounds like we’ve evolved about the same.  My rod/reel collection does allow me to mix and match to do anything a bass fisherman needs.  I think it’s more my OCD for perfection that keeps my spinning in circles and buying the next perfect rod or reel - with no sign of anything improving just yet.?

[Big Hands]

8 minutes ago, The Baron said:

@Big Hands  Yes, sounds like we’ve evolved about the same.  My rod/reel collection does allow me to mix and match to do anything a bass fisherman needs.  I think it’s more my OCD for perfection that keeps my spinning in circles and buying the next perfect rod or reel - with no sign of anything improving just yet.?

 

Some enjoy collecting and trying gear. Maybe you'll actually end up satisfied with your arsenal at some point as you evolve. As long as your OCD isn't harming yourself or others and you're using your own disposable income to indulge yourself, then I think you should be able to do as you please.

 

There are a few things I do a lot of, and I have sought (within my own budgetary constraints) perfection for just the right combo. The best example I have of that is the rod I have chosen as my "Senko rod". I tried a half dozen rods, both casting and spinning, before discovering that I love the St. Croix Mojo 7'6" hair jig spinning rod explicitly for tossing weightless wacky 5" Senkos on the water I fish. I have had it for over a year and NEVER used it for any other technique. The only other rod that I own that I could say that about is my biggest swimbait rod.

 

I discovered that the perfect Senko rod for everyone simply doesn't exist because we all fish that bait rigged that way in so many different environments and conditions. 

 

To me, it was worth it to find a rod that works so much better for me for something I do a lot of. OTOH, I have no idea if I have a great chatterbait rod. I haven't fished that technique enough to know what it would be if I was holding it in my hands, and I am not currently compelled to find one. Pretty sure I have something that will suffice for the time being.

 

I think I have hit my useful saturation point with rods and reels for the time being and my current roster sits at about 16 with some additional players on the reserve squad occupying space further up in the rafters until I can send them off to be more useful to someone else. I was an angler on a quest and wondered if it would ever slow down and it actually has flatlined for me.

[TnRiver46]

I break all my rods so I don’t have to worry about storing them 

[RichF]

I run 15-20 combos but constantly switch things around. It’s a horrible habit. I overthink everything, all the time. I also can’t pair certain things based on price haha. That adds to the confusion and complexity. The lesson here…don’t take any advice from me!

[you]

29 minutes ago, RichF said:

I also can’t pair certain things based on price haha.

 

I think about this too. It's weird how our instincts can cater to marketing more than practicality. Shopping is a lot of fun; fishing is a lot of fun. Most of us like to do both, but it seems like the wires get crossed sometimes.

[Pogues2300]

I’ll address the second question in your post. When going to lake x as you say, I just take into account what type of lake, cover, etc. along with what time of year, and weather conditions. Then out of all that decide what techniques I think will work and want to use. That’s just me not saying that’s right or the only way.

[JackstrawIII]

10 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Agreed, thet really help this OG try and keep track of my rigs.

AJ, my friends always look at me like I'm crazy for bringing 7-8 rods on the boat. I should show them this. This is ridiculous...ly awesome haha

[GRiver]

I do like @Pogues2300….. figure out where I’m going then take the setups needed. I also have a few multi purpose rigs to save on room in my boat, it’s small. 
 

[A-Jay]

41 minutes ago, JackstrawIII said:

AJ, my friends always look at me like I'm crazy for bringing 7-8 rods on the boat. I should show them this. This is ridiculous...ly awesome haha

Well before the Pro-V Bass,

I fished from an Old Town Canoe for 10 years and had it rigged up to carry 9 rigs.

5 Casting 4 spinning.

 Sort of strikes me that the responses here are centered around how much gear I use.

Never really felt like 'a lot'.

But it get the job done,.

A-Jay

 

 

[Columbia Craw]

I put a bar code on my combos so I just scan them with my smart phone.