Line And Rod Setups For Coangler

[volchuck]

I am fishing as a co-angler in tournaments coming up this season, just a local club but am pretty excited to try something Ive always wanted to do. It is my first tournament experience though…

Ive read a few searched posts on coangler rods and tackle and wanted to get some thoughts on what I have in my 4 rod setup currently and what maybe I should change up or add.

I am going right now with a 4 rod set-up

1 spinning rod 6’6 – with 10lb floro. For finesse, drop shot and shaky heads

1 baitcast 7:1 ,med/heavy 7’0 – 15 lb floro, has been my main go to with spinnerbaits and heavy cranks (am I too heavy on line?)

1 baitcast 6:2:1, med/heavy 6’6 – 65lb braid – was gonna use it for a bama rig, possibly heavy spinners or heavy brush jigs. I plan to start with this rig with the bama rig tied on at about 1.5-2oz.

1 baitcast med/heavy 6’6 (little more flex) – 12 lb floro I think but Im not sure what I want to put here? - this is for some cranking, suspended jerks

That’s what I have right now. Am I missing anything? On the right track? Would you add a rod or change/swap a line??

This will be a tennessee river system tournament if that makes a difference!

Thanks for the help and hope this helps others

[smalljaw67]

When on someone elses boat keep your tackle to a minimum, it is common courtesy and when the boater want to use the big motor to move to another area he isn't waiting on you to button down rods and stowing away a ton of tackle. You can do this by using the tournament schedule to pick your rods and tackle. For example, if the first tounament is say in late June and the fish are all pretty much in post spawn well you are going to be using search baits as the fish tend to scatter at that time. So the next thing to look at is the body of water, does it have a lot of weeds or is there a lot of standing timber, things like that and then talk to other club members that fished the body of water before during the same time period and see what they say. And the final thing to do is check the weather forecast for the day of the tounament and see what conditions are going to be like. Then have a small bag with a worm binder for your plastcis, a plano 3700 size box will hold all the cranks you'll need, another 3700 will hold enough terminal tackle and riggings, a spinnerbait binder will carry all of those you need and a 3rd 3700 box to carry topwaters, that will give yoy 3 good size boxes in a bag with 2 binders, enough tackle for even a 2 day tounament. For rods I would bring a flipping stick, a 6'6" or 7', whatever your preferance medium heavy fast action rod for spinnerbaits and worms and jigs, the same 7' medium cranking rod and a 6'6" to 7' medium powered spinning rod, that is all you will need. You don't want to get carried away with frog rods, drop shot and shaky head rods as well 2 cranking set ups, that is too much and the lighter you go the more your boater will appreciate it. And one last thing, always give money for gas, even if he turns it down make sure you let him know you understand that there is gas, oil and wear and tear and not just fuel and that you don't mind paying your share for the ability to fish out of the persons boat. This will get you invited to fish a lot more and gain you a little bit of respect.

[roadwarrior]

Outfish the boater: Eeliminator, C-rigged

[bandsr4me20]

One lure you can take that will keep you from taking a bunch of tackle is a jig. You can fish that from top to bottom and in a variety of ways.

[lmoore]

Some great advice already. Talk to your boater before the tournaments and he'll let you know what type of water he's fishing and you can set-up based off of that. One thing you may want to think about is the umbrella rig is illegal in TN in it's 5-arm form.

[A-Rob]

You have done a good job at having a little bit of everything!

I started fishing as a co-angler a couple years ago and if I can add my 2 cents....

1. Call the boater and ask what he plans on fishing. He will let ya know if you are gonna be in the pads all day flippin' or out on the ledges cranking and that helps you simplify that gear.

2. Look at what season you are fishing the tourny in and pick the gear you are good at fishing. So if it is the summer the classic patterns are fishing the slop shallow or ledges, best bring a crankbait, worm, jig, and frog rod... etc.

Here is my rigs for a typical summer largemouth tourney (just to give you another example, not saying it's right/wrong or even applies to your seasonal situation...just an example)

1. Jig Rod (always! haha) - 1/4-1/2oz jig/craw

2. Frog Rod - Hollow-belly or Buzz Toad

3. MH All Purpose Rod - Worm or Spinnerbait

4. Crankbait Rod - whatever crank suits the season (ie shallow in fall, deep in summer)

5. Spinning gear with a senko

That's my basic set-up...it isn't too much gear, keeps everything simple and organized. And suits my favourite style of fishing.

Take from that what you want haha but I do know after your first tourny you will be switching all your gear up to make it better for the 2nd tourny! hahaha Good luck dude!!!!

[volchuck]

very much appreciate all the feedback! Its all very helpful.

First tournament is this weekend on Pickwick. Im hearing alot of Alabama rig reports but honestly havent tried it before. Im just looking forward to getting on the water!!

[Fishes in trees]

I fished a number of years as a co-angler in BFL tournaments and the one thing I can tell you is to every tournament is different. Bring a bunch of stuff with you, if you have some one to pre-fish with then pre-fish. Make your preliminary tackle choices based on seasonal patterns. Make your final selections after you've met and talked with your boater. This gives you a much better idea of how much and what kind of stuff to bring.

I carried a few as four rods up to as many as eight. If your boater has a nice boat, 8 rods is doable. I had tournaments where it was useful to have a rattle trap rod and a crankbait rod and a squarebill rod all rigged up. In the spring time, a dedicated jerkbait rod saves alot of time. I always had a flipping stick, but most of the time I had it rigged up in bubba dropshot fashion.

For many summer tournaments, it is unwise to ignore the top water bite first thing in the morning, so there were several tournaments I had a dedicated poper rod. Should I choose to get back onto tournament fishing, I'm pretty certain that I'd have some sort of dedicated swim bait rod. Every tournament is different. You've got to make your own choices about what rods to dedicate to which technique. Good luck.