I just returned from a trip to Bass Pro and Cabela's tonight picking up some late Christmas for myself:p. After adding 2 new rod and reel combos to my arsenal, I wonder when I will decide I have enough. I've stockpiled a pretty good collection since I got into bass fishing, and each have their own use, and will be used during given situations. However, I'm starting to think that I may be better off to just start carrying about 4 rods with me, and selling off a few of my older setups. Clear up some space on the boat, while also allowing me to change tactics on the fly. How about it guys? How many are you guys carrying in the boat when you hit the lake? This stuff gets addicting...
When tourney fishing ill always keep 6 rods on the boat. 3 baitcasters, 3 spinning. Say spinner, rattle/crank, dropshot, shakyhead, jig, topwater. Although most of the time I favor the finesse just b/c of the bodys of water I fish...The real question is how much tackle does one bring on the boat
I used to have a bass boat, then I went to the canoe, now I am down to a kayak. I bring in one pole and enough worms, hooks, weights, and a few other speciality baits to make it through my time on the water. I am a 95% plastic worm fisherman. I told myself I will be fishing more this year although I have gotten away from it the last few years for a variety of reasons. This year will be the first year I bring out one of my kids on the canoe with me. I am really looking forward to it.
I carry with me to the lake 6 baitcasting setups and 2 spinning setups. I usually bring 4 BC and 1 spinning. It's not to have more than less because you don't have to spend valuable time retying if you want to try a new lure. I do fish a lot of club tournaments and having a wide variety of baits to use at a moments notice is helpful to me. It's much less important when I am fishing for fun.
VS I totally understand how fun it is to fish out of a kayak. My favorite local spot is an old farm pond owned by a guy who worked for my dad. It's way back down an old dirt road, and holds some great bass and crappie fishing. It's a blast to load a kayak into the water and head out in it.
Depends on the size of the boat I'm fishing on, and what type of water I'm fishing. I know certain lakes are great for jigs, some are good for senko's, some are good for crank baits, etc.........so I'll bring the appropriate setups for the water I'm fishing. I don't tournament fish much, but when I do I usually bring everything and just leave it in the rod locker if I'm not using it. Right now I've got 5 baitcaster setups, and 2 spinning setups that I'll use depending on what I'm going after, sometimes they all go, sometimes only 3 or 4 will go. I don't use a spinning rod much, as I primarily fish largemouths. I usually only bring a spinning setup if it's mid/late summer and I'm fishing deeper water with finesse presentations, or if I'm fishing a spot specifically for smallmouths or walleyes with smaller baits. I am looking to pick up a bigger reel for my swimbait rod, which most likely will be a Curado 301E. I'm also looking to put together a specific rod for crankbaits before next season, I'll most likely get another Zillion but the new one will be 6.3:1, and will most likely be put on top of a Mojo crankbait rod.
The Curado is one SWEET reel, however I do not own one yet, just played around with one. I bought a Citica last year just because it ran a little cheaper, but it's not quite on the level of the Curado. I got a Revo S last night, looking forward to putting it to the test. I just bought my first Mojo rod last night (Spinning 7' M). Can't wait to try it out. First fishing trip is planned for sometime in March to a local lake in Illinois, and then on to Texas in April.
Yes, the Curado's are very nice. I've actually got 3 of the 201E7's. The Mojo's are a nice rod for the $$$ too. I've got 3 of them, the same spinning rod you do, as well as their 7' m/h fast spinnerbait casting rod, and the 7' m fast plastics casting rod. I don't use the spinning rod often, or the plastics rod, I'm thinking about unloading those to make room for some new ones before the upcoming year in favor of a few others.
The lakes I fish have 15+ vis, so light line spinning setups are the way to go. But the Potomac is a whole different beast.
Scott, our club is going over to fish a tournament at Lake of Egypt in March. Looking forward to it as I have never been. Hope to get out on a warm weekend in February to take a look.
I fished Egypt for the first time last year during Memorial Day weekend. It was a great lake, with a lot of good bass in it. The pleasure boaters made it a little rough on us, but we still managed to catch some good bass in the 3-4 lbs. range. We had a lot of luck with wacky rigged senkos in about 20' of water off grassy points inside one of the coves.
Looking forward to it as well as fishing some more southern IL lakes. $30 for a non resident yearly an I live closer to most of the S IL lakes than I do lakes I like to fish in MO.
Fun fishing and prefishing for tournaments you might find 20 rods strewn across the deck of my boat, but when it comes down to the tournament im a 4 rod guy, I have a plan, I know what im fishing, when, and why, ok maybe 6 rods because we do a lot of carolina rigging for smallies up here on Champlain, and lets face it, a carolina just takes too damn long to rig in a tourny. When i fished the Junior World Championships in 2006 and 2007 I flew to Alabama and Arkansas with 6 rods total. Including an 8ft flippin stick. you have to cater your arsenal to the bodies of water that you are fishing, the time of year and the species you are targeting. This Can be a challenge on Champlain as you often times will fish for smallies in 30+ft and flip for Largemouth in 6inches of water in the same day, but that's why I love it.
And they say archery is expensive:D Sorry, hijack over. I could never get myself fully into bass fishing full on simply because of the lack of lakes around us. I do plan to throw a popper or terrestrial at them a few times with the fly rod this summer.
The rods and reels will last years if properly taken care of. The expensive part comes when you start replacing lures/soft plastics. Oh and boats aren't cheap either, however some of my best bass fishing happened on farm ponds just walking around the banks, or in a kayak.
