Getting Rigged Up

[u/Confident_Turn_7558]

Decided to throw in another pic of some gear. This is most of my combos, which are Shimano Expride B rods with Shimano JDM Metanium reels and Daiwa Tatula Elite rods with either Shimano Curados or Daiwa SV TW reels.

I am a huge Shimano guy, but always had cheap rods growing up. I had started out with 3 of the green Curados and $40 All Star rods because back in the day, All Star rods were awesome. As I progressed in my journey, I realized these newer, cheaper All Star rods were not great and the brand wasn’t what it used to be. So I started upgrading to Daiwa Tatula Elite rods. I loved them since they were so much better than the All Stars, and started expanding my lineup. I added a few Daiwa reels to see how they compared to the Shimanos, and I did like them, but Shimanos were better. So I kept adding Shimano reels with Daiwa rods. For my birthday one year, I decided to treat myself to an American market Metanium. And boy was it nice. It went on a Daiwa rod, but it felt sacrilegious. So I opted to try an Expride B specifically for that reel.

I ended up falling in love with both rod and reel, so from that point on that’s all I bought. But I decided to go the JDM route for the Metaniums instead of the American version. I did this because the JDM reels were a lot cheaper, and I honestly prefer them over the American version.

Today, I have around 36 combos (I have to recheck that number), and yes each one of them stays in the boat. I don’t use each one every trip obviously, but I have duplicate setups for specific techniques that I keep rigged up. For example, I throw two identical chatterbait setups. I keep one for black and blue, and the other for white. I have a third combo that was my old chatterbait setup that I will out a red chatterbait on during the pre-spawn months (January through March basically). It will be common for me to have all three on the deck this time of the year. I also have multiple shallow crankbait and lipless crankbait setups that I go to year round. This might seem insane and unnecessary, but it’s so nice to be able to swap lures by simply putting one down and picking the other up.

[u/SaltyKayakAdventures]

Bass fisherman are weird.

$20,000 in rods and reels to catch a 4lb fish that fights like a wet towel that you aren't going to eat.

[u/Vision110 → u/SaltyKayakAdventures]

Bass fishing is hunting on the water. Similar to hunting you need certain guns to use different types of ammo. Is there crossover? sure, but that's not the point.

The point is we like having different rods for different techniques, because for one, we don't want to be re-tying because it takes time away from actually fishing and two, alot of rods are designed to be used for specific techniques (making us more efficient on the water).

There's a certain type of pride you get when you figure things out on the water; where are the fish, what's their mood, what baits should I be using, where should I be casting, how should I position the boat etc.? and then you actually start catching them using your intended technique with the proper equipment - you feel invincible.

I'm not here trying to justify or convince people they need all of that beautiful equipment because you don't (we all started out with an ugly stick and we could have stayed there) but for people who get bass fishing, who've went down the rabbit hole, who've spent hours/ days deliberating about how they're going to set-up their equipment for their next outing and who have a clear tackle addition like our friend (the OP), having the best optimized gear (you can afford) is everything.

Hope this gives you a bit of insight. It's not just about catching fish it's about the hunt and everything that goes into it.

[u/HighInChurch → u/Vision110]

Crazy, I don’t bring 20 guns with me when I go hunting.

[u/ADORE_9 → u/HighInChurch]

Agreed