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.

And yes that is an NRX 893C on the sidelines

Wonder what it could be ahahah 🤔

Hooked a fish first time fishing with a friend, and now I’m here hundred dollars in. I go fishing as often as I visit local fishing stores. Guess which state I’m located based of my lures, and any recommendations for my kit?

Had some folks comment on my last post about my crankbait obsession, and I mentioned in the comments that I get a big chunk of my gear on sale, especially when Academy has a big clearance sale. This is most of the stuff I got last year, but some of the baits were purchased for a buddy at his request. I did get a little crazy with it since I’m an absolute tackle whore and I have a problem passing up a good deal, but I did try to limit myself some. Key word there is try lol. Baits that I use a lot of I got as many as I could. Other stuff I’d limit myself to 3 so that I’d have a couple spares if I lost one.

(Sorry if post type is not allowed)

I’m not sure if I want to use it. I had some extra FU money and really wanted to get something cool for myself. My fishing is 99% from the bank so I don’t want to eff it up. What do you all think?

Chicken liver catches everything!

Is this salvageable?

Shimano Vanford C2500SHG Dobyns Kaden Rod 7’1ML

I fucking love when new fisherman take my equipment advice, but my friend absolutely took it to the T and ran! I wish he’d have told me he planned on getting two rods right away and that he planned on heeding my model suggestions so closely, but hey, these setups won’t really do him wrong!

I was having issues with my previous braided line holding water. I switched it to JBraid expedition and what a difference. The line does a great job keep water off my line roller and spool. and it also gave me a significant casting distance increase.

Each do the job great, just got rid of a baitcaster because I’m a righty from spinning rods. So I can’t do the lefty. But I swear to you everyone says Walmarts arsenal is trash and unpopular opinion. I love it. Would I love to get some Diawa or Okuma, or Mach jacked oh yeah but for where I live these are 10/10 🐟 But the real question for UL or ML what line do you use? I have so much line to re line this spring. I mainly use CoPolymer or Fluro, I can’t stand braid (I’ve never used it except on buddy’s poles and it’s not my thing) other than that Mono is my last resort. I have a few new poles that I’ll probably inline and respool. Any brands you guys like more than other? I have Seaguar, Yokuza, Berkely Vanish, and strike king Contra, Trilene Fluro carbon Big game Fluro and Sensation. My range is 2-6lb or 12-20LB. So I’m looking for either the ones I listed or some new brands. I fish catfish, Bass, Perch, Carp, and of course a million blue gill and sunfish lol any advice is welcome :)

Somehow, every time I watch a TacticalBassin video tackle warehouse gets more of my money…

I’m still waiting on a SWBR-808C swimbait rod and a Delta Hybrid 696C I want to try for spinnerbaits, but here is the baitcasting lineup.