How many setups is practical?

[ando967]

So I'm taking my breamin more seriously this year. After watching a couple of fairly professional guys in the swan river a few weeks back I noticed they were running 6-7 rods rigged and ready to go, I'm wondering what the purpose of each might be? I am running 3 at the moment, a stradic 1000 on 1-3kg rod with 4lb braid for finesse work, a stradic 2500 on 2-4kg rod with 6lb braid for plastics and hard bodies and a 2500 catalyst pt on a 3-5kg with 8lb braid for racks. So as I look forward to fishing some comps next year could someone explain what the extra setup are and are used for and primarily can I be competitive fishing 3? Thanks in advance

[forsterfisho]

Hey,

3 is more than enough to be competitive, after all...you can only fish with one rod at a time.

To be more serious though, if you are fishing from your own boat then take as many rods as practical. For example, I can keep 3 rods next to my console, 4 strapped to the rod locker and 5 in the rod locker and if I really needed them another 3 in the rod racks. Do I take all those rods, rarely unless I'm going away for a few days and have some different options available such as bass, bream, flathead or jew.

Your listed outfits seem fine, but I would seriously consider running atleast one combo with 3 or 4lb fluro straight through - a great option for when the fish are being sneaky! I'll have 2 rods rigged with 3lb, one rod rigged with 2lb fc. A couple of rods with 6lb braid and one or two heavier combos for rack's or jew...but again, that's fishing in my own boat. If I was fishing as a non boater or guess in a mates boat, I'd just ask how many rods I can take along and go from there....the general rule seems to be 4 or 5.

[FTP]

I think that you need to define "practical" in your own terms. If you are land based then the number will be far fewer than on a boat. As a guest/non boater in a tournament then it will be up to the skipper of whichever boat you are on.

Another way to look at it is how many lure/fishing styles are you comfortable with? Topwaters and soft plastics require different rod types so there is 2 to start with. Most rods that are good for straight through fc and tiny cranks (1-3g) are not going to work as well as something for heavy structure work so there is another 2 rods. If you need one for really long casts then that will differ from a shorter accuracy based set up and now you are up to 6 rods...

Work out what styles you are going to fish and then populate your rod&reel setups according to your needs and budget. Maybe it is 4, maybe 20?

[Bait Caster]

Three outfits is fine. Wait until you have fished a couple of comps before loading up on gear. If you really want, a light fluoro outfit would round things out. Try to speak to comp fishers in your area. Try hanging out at local ramps and tackle shops, ask politely, most blokes will be more than happy to explain there choices. Telling you how they fish is a different matter.

[Piscateur]

Practical and fishing gear was a concept I couldn't link Sorry no help here

[ando967]

Thanks for the replies! Yeah absolutely agreed with what's been said, I'm not looking to go stupid with buying gear was thinking 1 or 2 more lower end setups but the 3lb straight through seems like a good idea so might have a look at doing that and just working from there.

[breambarron]

Having 'Doubles' two of each combo is a good idea for tournament fishing, So for example you get busted off rather then tie on a new lure and possible leader you just pick up the exact same combo and keep fishing

[Simonosy]

Depending on where I'm fishing I take these outfits:

Racks - Evergreen Tactics 3-10lb with 2510 Morethan Branzino
Flats - Nories Rockfish Bottom 4-8lb with 2004 Luvias
Surface - Smith Bayliner CF PE0.3-0.8 with 1004 Certate
Light Plastics - Smith Bayliner CF PE0.3-0.8 with 2004 Aegis
Vibes - Megabass Racing Condition World Edition 2-6lb with 20X Gaus
Structure - Megabass Lycaon 3-7lb with 2004 Certate Finesse Custom
Spare all rounder - Megabass Competition Lycaon 2-7lb with 2004 Steez

On any given day, I could be fishing any of these outfits in one estuary. In a tournament - if I wanted to spot fish a deep hole for 5 minutes then keep going and fish one oyster rack, then head out onto the flats, I'd want to have all three rigged and ready to grab and cast. It's not necessary of course (and I could probably do everthing with just my Evergreen or Nories) but it's good to have different set-ups ready to role to cover all bases.

If I had to cut it down to 4 rods I'd take the evergreen, nories, bayliner and lycaon competition. That would cover all bases for me. I think if you were switched on you could still be competitive even with only 1 rod really - but it's nice to have a few options.

[Eastbrimin]

Also having similar rods with different lures helps with time on the water. The weekends Coota yak comp a good example. I was mostly fishing sand flats after Yella's and the depth varied from 2ft to 6ft. The fish were responding to the lure hitting the sand so i had 3 rods with 2.5lb straight thru,a Smith pannish, Smith DDPanish and a Daiwa Presso Minnow on them. As i drifted over different depths i could Quickly grab the lure i wanted and cast instead of having to change lures over....

[Simonosy]

Originally Posted by Eastbrimin

Also having similar rods with different lures helps with time on the water. The weekends Coota yak comp a good example. I was mostly fishing sand flats after Yella's and the depth varied from 2ft to 6ft. The fish were responding to the lure hitting the sand so i had 3 rods with 2.5lb straight thru,a Smith pannish, Smith DDPanish and a Daiwa Presso Minnow on them. As i drifted over different depths i could Quickly grab the lure i wanted and cast instead of having to change lures over....

Yep, lots of the time you'll know that (for example) you're going to fish 90% flats so you'd have 3 flats rods on board. I had the MW62F, Laydown and Panish55 all rigged up just recently when I was out prefishing - actually two MW62F's one in natural and one bright color (one for dirty water & one for clear) on 4 similar rods. Will be doing the same in the comp. Now that I think about it, it's pretty situation dependent on what rods and how many of each to take...