New to bass fishing and looking at 4 to 6 rods to start taking it more serious!

[NothingButDinks]

Hi Everyone!

I'm somewhat new to bass fishing, as growing up, most of my fishing was for trout. I did fish for bass a little but wasn't very serious with it (mostly farm ponds etc...).

 

Now my question is as I've grown older, I've started get serious with bass fishing as I love it. I have 2 setups. One spinning (St. Croix Mojo Bass 7' medium/fast with Shimano Stratic) and a Dobyn's 733C (Medium/Heavy Fast with Shimano SLX)

There is so much information out there that I think I'm just confusing myself and want to just ask for help.

I'm getting a sit-on-top kayak later this year, as the cheap one I have from Wal-Mart is just awful on my back!! So I'm looking for 5 to 6 rods or even less that can cover my needs. 

I like to throw neds, dropshots, wacky rigs, weightless senko's, neko rigs, free rigs, squarebills, chatterbaits, shakeyheads, and paddletails (keitech's 3.8). There is some grass on some of the rivers I fish, but I've never done any punching or anything like that.

Budget isn't really a problem, even though I would like to keep each combo at $500ish. I have used a Shimano Curado MGL and love them, as that's what I will want to pair all the rods with. (Unless someone can talk me out of it!)

As far as brands go, I like Dobyns, St. Croix, and Shimano Expride B's as I've used these from friends.

Any help would be great, and maybe in what order you would buy these.

[MediumMouthBass]

Im not going to make any rod suggestions since i only buy budget ones but ill give a suggestion for the reels. (casting reels).

With your budget per combo you can get alot of really nice rods and reels so id definitely suggest 1 or a few 2021 Daiwa Zillion's. The ones from US are $370 but  you can get them from Japan slightly above $200. I bought the US one last year and just decided to take it out of the box and start using it. To say this things beyond amazing is an understatement. If you look up Zillion in the search bar youll find it gets lots of praises and can literally do anything.

One of the best reels anyone can buy right now. And not too far out there in price.

 

That being said with that kind of budget id also suggest not getting all of the same thing, having lots of 1 certain type or rod or reel (even if its great) gets slightly boring after awhile. Plus its nice to have different feeling and color rods and reels. But thats just me.

 

 But for rods its hard to beat anything from Dobyns, Shimano, Megabass, St Croix.

[NothingButDinks]

Thank you for the reply!

I will definitely look into the Zillion. I'm not opposed to having different reels or rods for that matter. It actually might be better, as I can see what I really like. 
 

The reason I mentioned the cuardo is everyone I know that has one has been bulletproof, and the feel for me was really good.  

When it comes to the rods I wouldn't be opposed to having 5 different brands if they each did there own thing well. (If that makes sense).

I hear good things about megabass but I haven't had or know of anyone that has one.

[Choporoz]

I do not necessarily recommend buying more than one new rod at a time.

It is rare that I bought a rod with an intended specific use and got it right the first time.  

But many of those mis-cast rods ended up being ideal for something else.  So by the time I settled on a jig rod, I already had a great spinnerbait rod and a great chatterbait rod.  Set out to get a shakey head rod, but ended up with a senko skipping rod and a tremendous dropshot rod along the way.

[NothingButDinks]

37 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

I do not necessarily recommend buying more than one new rod at a time.

It is rare that I bought a rod with an intended specific use and got it right the first time.  

But many of those mis-cast rods ended up being ideal for something else.  So by the time I settled on a jig rod, I already had a great spinnerbait rod and a great chatterbait rod.  Set out to get a shakey head rod, but ended up with a senko skipping rod and a tremendous dropshot rod along the way.

I'm with you on not buying all these at once!

 

I just wanted to see what everyone thought about rod choices given the kind of fishing I do at the moment. 

 

I would think my next rod would either be a cranking rod or drop shotting rod. 

[MN Fisher]

17 minutes ago, NothingButDinks said:

drop shotting rod. 

That Mojo M/F will work as a drop-shot rod...go with a cranking stick if you must buy another rod...and a reel with a 24-27IPT.

 

That rig will also work for chatter and spinnerbaits.

[Big Hands]

For the kind of fishing you specify, I could see you having two ML spinning rods, one slightly different from the other. A garden variety 7'0 ML/F for Ned, dropshot, slightly heavier shakeyheads, 3.8" Keitech Fat Impact. And then a longer ML/XF for weightless and weightless/wacky Senkos, lighter shakeyheads, and smaller ballhead swimbaits. There would be some overlap between the two and that would allow you to be rigged with a 1-2 light spinning rig when the bite is narrowed down to that, which it often is.

 

And then a moderate casting rig for good control of hard baits with treble hooks.

[Craig P]

Your and my background seem very similar, even down to the first two rods. All of my bass fishing was casting to shorelines so I wanted to learn about offshore and learned about football jigs. Fell in love with it, especially 3/4 ounce and bought a setup for heavy presentations. With that said, maybe buy the next rod based off of one aspect that you really like or think you will like.

 

From there, I wanted something very Ned specific, I go against the norm, I throw Ned’s on a bait caster and bought a setup for light presentations.  After that, something for just T-rigs and forward. I’ve found some of these setups to handle spinbaits really nice as well depending on the weight of the bait I want to use.

 

I know I’m not being rod specific here, just a path as your path and mine are similar. 
 

FWIW, I like Dobyn’s Champion XP Rods and Curado Reels for most things but I also have Shimano and St Croix as I am enjoying these new monocoque handles.

[Columbia Craw]

It sounds like you have a plan and direction in building a selection to fill a lot of bait types and techniques.  First off, your reel selection is great in that any Shimano with an MGL spool would help maximize casting distance when it’s needed.  The Curado is a proven platform and you can get it in a 70 size or 150 size.

 

If I was in your shoes, a crankbait rod would be in my next progression.  Being you have confidence in Dobyns rods, the Champion 705CB would cover numerous crankbait types and top water baits.  Look at the rating for that model. My next thought would be a spinning rod in a 3 power or more of a medium rating.  I would think setting a hook from a kayak has its own challenges and a rod with a bit more power might be helpful.  Happy shopping.

[roadwarrior]