TackleTour

There are soo many fishing techniques, applications, unique lures and weights, it’s overwhelming at times.

i am looking for help on what techniques or applications, baits, lures etc that you feel deserve a dedicated setup (Rod/Reel) or what you prefer to have as a dedicated setup or combo.

Some people combine applications, for example Frog/Punch/Flip,
Regardless i’m curious to learn more. if you can list your dedicated setups that would be appreciated. Please also specify if it’s spinning or casting I’m equally interested to hear the specific techniques and make and model rod and reel you use for it if possible.

i hope this makes sense
, Thanks!

I think in a lot of cases people have dedicated rods because of what they use the most. In most cases rods can be used with several types of presentation but we dedicate them to one presentation because of our confidence presentations and where we fish. With that said here are my dedicated rods that see very little use with other presentations:
Spinning
Steez 761 1st edition- Ned rigs (a lot of people use this rod for other presentations)
Dobyns 741 Champion HP Finesse 3"-3.5" swimbaits

Casting
Dobyns 704 Champion XP Crankbait rod- jerkbaits
Dobyns 742 Champion HP pitching dropshots
Dobyns 742 Champion HP 4" swimbaits on ballhead (looking to sell this rod and go back to the 742 spinning rod for swimbaits)
St Croix Tournament Bass 7'10 Heavy- punching
St Croix Tournament Bass 7'0 MH Sweeper- Chatterbait/Spinnerbait
843 GLX- Sleepers (used to be for pitching plastics primarily until Sleepers came along)
BPS Crankin' Stick 7'10 Heavy- deep-diving cranks

All my other rods see use with a variety of presentations.

Somewhat of a controversial topic imo. If I've found a specific rod, dedicated to a particular presentation, it's usually because I stumbled onto it. When I'm seeking a new rod, I often try to find something that is as versatile as possible.
I understand the purpose of dedicated sticks, to avoid tying on numerous new baits. I usually pick 2 or 3 techniques that I feel the rod really excels at. For example, 2 medium lights, 2 mediums, and 2 medium lights. One of each for single hook moving baits, and the other for bottom contact. Aside from that, I have one dedicated jerkbait rod, and one ded top water rod. I also have a dedicated flick shake and the like rod, as I throw finesse wacky rigged worms a lot. It's typically not until you've used a rod a lot that you find something you feel the rod really excels at.
Everyone has different preferences on what they like and want from a dedicated rod, so buying based on others preferences, or what the rod is marketed for can be a bit dicey.

Totally agree with junk fisherman, dedicated setups arise from confidence lures and/or techniques, at least for me. Only got a few I'd consider dedicated.

1. Rigging plastics are my bread and butter so no surprise I have a dedicated setup for them, I use a St croix 7'0" mh/f legend elite baitcast rod. Creatures and worms, rigging varies; t-rigs, mojo rigs, and jika rigs mostly, weedless boot-tail swimmers on occasion.

2. Not quite dedicated but you'll find a chatterbait on my 7'0" hvy/mod-fast dobyns 706cb 90+% of the time, with spinnerbaits and big cranks on occasion.

3. Another is a 7'0" medium/fast spinning rod (daiwa kage) which I use only for 5-6" stick or finesse worms rigged a variety of different ways mostly comprising of wacky, shaky head, neko, and tex-posed dropshot.

4. Daiwa 7'3" heavy/fast for swims/glides, not a high confidence zone for me but the nature of the lures requires somewhat specialized/dedicated gear.

My three remaining main setups are all very much multi-purpose.

I only have 1 rod that never sees more than one bait, and that is the 6-10H Xtreme Angler rod that I toss frogs with. All the rest I do have preferences as to what they are used for, but they get used for multiple things..... especially if I go pond hopping and only take a couple of combos. Then I tend to do a light or ML and a MH combo.

No doubt a confidence thing like the others have said. For myself, because I use a jerkbait 99% of the time I have a dedicated set up for it that is only used for jerkbaits (Steez TN & X7 Super Elseil). Plus, a jerkbait rod really needs a fast tip for jerks but have enough of a parabolic action to keep fish pinned on those tiny trebles. Everything else I own is multiuse.

thanks for the replies

I appreciate it

PKN8 wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 13, 2022 3:46 pm

No doubt a confidence thing like the others have said. For myself, because I use a jerkbait 99% of the time I have a dedicated set up for it that is only used for jerkbaits (Steez TN & X7 Super Elseil). Plus, a jerkbait rod really needs a fast tip for jerks but have enough of a parabolic action to keep fish pinned on those tiny trebles. Everything else I own is multiuse.

Which is exactly what makes the perfect jerkbait rod often hard to find. Though some people prefer a slower taper.

I have several dozen custom rods. I went down the rabbit hole of trying to find the perfect rod for each technique, but there are so many techniques today that this really isn't even possible anymore. Even my DD cranks rods get used for other techniques. Even the biggest boat can't hold all of these rods. Ultimately, we have to have many multi-technique rods. Almost all of ny new builds are just adding to my multi-purpose types of rods. I have several 7'3" H casting, 7' MH casting, and 6'10" ML spinning rods in the boat on most outings because those get used for the most techniques. Add to this that we aren't all the same size and strength and you may never find two anglers identically equipped. The dedicated rod idea sounds cool, but the modern bass angler usually needs to be as versatile as possible. The Denny Brauer one-technique guy of yesteryear is becoming more and more rare because even Denny now likes to fish many of these new techniques that didn't exist in his heyday.

Thanks for the reply.

I’m curious to learn more. any other thoughts

Or, are there any techniques or applications that do not require a dedicated rod

I typically have very little time (have three young kids) to be out on the water, and so I have found that if I can do all my rigging the night before when everyone is in bed...that gives me more time to have my bait in the water and not switching out various baits. I would actually love to just have 5 or 6 (or 10 ha) more general purpose rods like the MBR line...but at this stage in my life, I have to be as efficient as I can. While all of my rods could pull double duty for another technique, I try to think the night before about which techniques I most likely will fish and then rig that way.
I typically have:
3-4 topwater rods
3-4 cranking rods
pitching rod
2 football rods
finesse jig rod
chatterbait rod
swim jig rod
spinnerbait rod
spinnning:
ds
shakeyhead
ned/neko
senko
I do enjoy tackle though...part of the fun of bass fishing is rigging and using your imagination

All my rods are essentially multi-purpose, I change the application more with the reel it's paired with and especially the type/rating of the line.

I suppose the only ones I could call specific, would be the BFS or light powered rated ones, but they are specific to weight not the lure or tech per se.

Low Down Custom XH - big swimbaits
Dobyns 795 (Gen 1) - small swimbaits
ODM Genesis 11’ - surf casting
Century Weapon Jr. - inshore

I have zero dedicated rods, what's funny is that the closest thing I can think of I own that is dedicated is my P5 Windbuster for free rig. That is and is a very versatile rod, but it's just such a joy to use that for that particular technique, that I rarely use it for something else. Also, I catch the fire out of them with the free rig, so why change up? I do want to use it for tubes this fall, it should have the backbone to do it. We'll see.

I purchased the vast majority of my rods with versatility in mind. That's not to say that I haven't relegated a few of them for specific techniques. Kind of easy to do when you have way more rods than you need. A 6' MH Berkley Lightning/Daiwa Procaster 100HN were purchased for my oldest grandson to learn how to use a baitcast reel. He had zero desire to learn. It is now my dedicated short range spinnerbait rod. Any rod labeled as a 'crankbait' rod gets used strictly for crankbaits.

I sent a 7'4" HF OG Tatula to Florida for a dedicated frog rod. I have several rods that others have said make great chatterbait rods. I'd like to see which one I feel works best for me, and make it a dedicated rod. Other than that, every other rod is fair game for almost any lure.

I do not use large swimbaits or Umbrella Rigs so they don't enter the equation.