The current lineup. Different rods, different reels, different jobs.

One of the questions I'm asked more than almost any other is, "What rod and reel do you use?"

The answer isn't one rod or one reel. Over the years I've built up a small lineup, with each outfit having a specific purpose. Could I catch bass on just one of them? Absolutely. But I fish a lot, I guide, and I fish very different types of ground in very different conditions. Having dedicated outfits means I'm picking up the tool that best suits what I'm doing.

You'll probably notice pretty quickly that this article is very Shimano heavy, that’s not an accident.

I've used plenty of gear over the years and, in my experience, the quality of Shimano rods and reels is exceptional and very hard to beat. I'm not sponsored by Shimano, none of this tackle has been supplied by them. They're simply the rods and reels I've chosen to spend my own hard earned money on and use.

Before getting into them though, there's something worth saying.

If you've asked me for rod and reel advice before, you might be wondering why these aren't necessarily the outfits I've suggested to you. The reason is simple. These are high-end performance tools and they're expensive.

Most people would balk at the cost of just one of these reels, never mind putting together a complete outfit. More importantly, if someone is getting into lure fishing I don't know whether they'll still be doing it in a month's time. I'm not going to suggest they spend a fortune before they've even worked out whether it's something they're going to stick with.

My first question when somebody asks me about tackle is always, "What's the top end of the budget?" Not that I want to max it out, I just need to know what I’m working with.

After that I want to know what sort of ground they generally fish, the lures they're likely to use and roughly where they live.

Then I'll usually get in touch with the nearest tackle shop to them that I deal with and work with them to find the best possible tool for that angler, their fishing and their budget, from a reputable supplier I trust.

That's important to me for all the reasons I've already talked about in my The Value of a Local Tackle Shop article.

This isn't a list of tackle I think everybody should go out and buy. Far from it, it's simply what I use, how I've set it up and why each outfit has a place.

Rod Lengths Are Deliberate

You'll notice there's quite a spread of rod lengths here, from the 8'8" Grand Stinger right up to the 12' Long Cast.

Again, that's no accident, nothing I do is.

The two 9'6" rods sit right in the heart of my open coast fishing because that length gives me the reach and line control I want across a huge variety of ground and conditions. The shorter rods have their own jobs, as does the 12' beast when things get properly lively.

It's not about having a favourite rod length. It's about having the right tool for where and how I'm fishing.

Shimano Exsence Infinity S96M & Shimano Stella 4000M FK

Shimano Exsence Infinity S96M & Stella 4000M FK – the dream setup.

9’6” 6-40g

This is the dream setup.

I've mentioned the story of the Exsence Infinity before in that same article though I didn’t call it out as that rod. It was a rod I'd wanted for a long time but, let's be fair, these aren't cheap rods.

Then a quiet deal came my way that was simply too good to turn down.

The Shimano Exsence Infinity S96M paired with the Shimano Stella 4000M FK is every bit the high-end bass fishing setup you'd expect it to be.

The Infinity is incredibly light, sensitive and responsive but there's serious power there when you need it. The Stella is a Stella. Smooth, refined and just sublime to use.

This outfit is loaded with 15lb Samson 36 Strong braid.

There isn't really much more I need from a setup. It's the sort of outfit that disappears in your hands when you're fishing and just lets you get on with what you're there to do, it was the dream rod for a reason.

Shimano Lunamis S96M & Shimano Twin Power FE 4000MHG

Shimano Lunamis S96M & Twin Power FE 4000MHG – a seriously capable open coast all-rounder.

9’6” 7-35g

The Shimano Lunamis S96M is probably the rod I'd be most likely to recommend to somebody if their budget allowed for it.

It's just a fantastic all-rounder. It's light, incredibly sensitive, has loads of power when you need it and it's an absolute pleasure to fish with. More importantly for me, it's a pleasure to actually work lures with. Top waters, subs, soft plastics, it'll happily do the lot and do them all very very well.

That's a big thing for me because I don't want to feel like I'm fighting the rod or compromising how I'm presenting something because I've changed lure type. I might start a session fishing a surface lure, move onto a shallow runner and later be working a soft plastic through the same ground.

The Lunamis handles them all beautifully.

I actually broke one of these rods last year and immediately went and got another, it’s just that good!!

I've paired mine with a Shimano Twin Power FE 4000MHG. The Twin Power is a brilliant match for it. It's incredibly smooth with a lot of trickle down tech from the Stella. It feels solid and it’s powerful without adding unnecessary weight to the setup. The 4000MHG gives me the retrieve speed I want on the open coast. It's one of those reels that just feels built to be worked hard.

Loaded up with the 20lb Samson 36 Strong and it's a seriously capable open coast setup and one I've got a huge amount of confidence in.

A Quick Note on the 4000M Reels

Both the Stella and Twin Power are M-size 4000 reels and, like most things in this lineup, that's deliberate too. The M-size means they're medium-depth spools, giving me the 4000 reel size without a load of line capacity I simply don't need.

They're not permanently married to those rods, I can swap them between outfits depending on where I'm going, what I'm doing and what I want from the setup that day.

The 4000 size also gives me another useful option with the Samson Long Cast Expanse, which I'll get to shortly. A 4000 suits that rod much better than a 3000, so having both the Stella and Twin Power available in that size gives me plenty of flexibility across the lineup.

They're part of a system rather than four or five outfits that can never change.

Shimano Exsence Genos Grand Stinger 88 & Shimano Vanford FA C3000XG

Shimano Exsence Genos Grand Stinger 88 & Vanford FA C3000XG – my dedicated estuary top water wand.

8’8” 6-30g

The Exsence Genos isn't my newest rod, but this is my newest complete setup. That's down to the addition of the Shimano Vanford FA C3000XG.

This is my dedicated estuary top water wand and it's a very different proposition to the open coast setups.

The Genos paired with the lighter Vanford and 15lb Samson 36 Strong makes for an incredibly light, responsive outfit. It's exactly what I want for the type of fishing I do there, particularly working top water lures for hours on end, there’s no strain, no tiredness, you feel everything - perfection.

The Vanford suits that job perfectly. It's incredibly light, very smooth and the C3000XG gives me the fast retrieve I want, particularly when I'm working top waters and picking up slack quickly.

When you're spending hours working a topwater lure, making small changes to retrieve speed, pauses and movement, having an outfit that's light and responsive makes a difference.

It's also just a joy to fish with, and that's important too. We can talk about specifications and performance all day but, ultimately, fishing is supposed to be enjoyable.

I actually got an unexpected chance to put the setup to use while taking the photos for this article.

I'd gone down to the coast that morning specifically to get some decent shots of the rods and reels, I wasn't planning on having a session. But I had them with me, I was standing beside the water... I was hardly not going to have a few casts.

Another angler told me there were no fish there.

I saw a fish and two casts later, this happened...

Grand Stinger 88, Vanford C3000XG and 58cm of top water bass.

Sometimes you've just got to give it a lash.

Shimano Bassterra XT & Shimano Ultegra C5000XG

Shimano Bassterra XT & Ultegra C5000XG – my working setup for guided sessions.

9’3” 7-40g

This one has a slightly different job.

The Shimano Bassterra XT paired with the Shimano Ultegra C5000XG is the setup I use while guiding.

It’s not what I’d call high end but nor is it a cheap outfit. The Bassterra is a very capable rod. It's forgiving, robust, performs well and, importantly, I'm perfectly happy handing it to somebody who may be lure fishing for the first time.

It’s not necessarily the outfit I’ll rent to someone, most bring their own anyway but I can teach everything with it and if someone snaps off I can hand it to them while I fix theirs and not be worried.

The Ultegra is loaded with 20lb Samson 36 Strong.

You'll probably notice that I've put a C5000 reel on it.

Would I normally recommend somebody buying a 5000 reel for their own lure rod?

No.

But coming out with me for a few hours to learn is a completely different thing to choosing the outfit you're going to fish with session after session.

For somebody learning, I find the bigger, faster reel useful. It allows them to pick up line quickly, which helps when they're learning to stay in contact with a lure. They're less likely to have huge amounts of slack hanging around while they're trying to work out what's happening at the other end.

That means fewer problems, fewer lost lures and more time actually learning to fish.

Once somebody is choosing their own tackle for regular lure fishing, that's a different conversation. That's when we're back to budget, ground, lure choice and what they're actually going to use the setup for.

Samson Long Cast Expanse LS

12’ 15-60g

You may have noticed that every rod I've talked about so far has been a Shimano.

This one isn't.

The Samson Long Cast Expanse LS is a Samson rod and it has a very specific place in my lineup.

This is my big open coast and wild seas beast.

When conditions become too much for my usual open coast outfits, I’m fishing a surf beach or I want the extra reach, line control and casting performance a longer rod gives me, this is the one I reach for.

At 12 feet it's obviously a very different tool to everything else here, and that's exactly the point.

It isn't trying to replace the Infinity, Lunamis or Genos. It does a different job.

The 4000M Stella and Twin Power also give me reel options that suit the Long Cast far better than the smaller 3000 size, so again there's some crossover and flexibility built into the overall lineup.

I've already written a full article on the Samson Long Cast Expanse LS and why a 12-foot lure rod has become such an important part of my fishing, so I'm not going to repeat all of that here.

If you want to know more about the big beast, have a read of that one.

Why Every Reel Is Now Loaded With Samson 36 Strong

Different rods. Different reels. Different jobs.

But there's one thing every lure outfit I own now has in common.

Samson 36 Strong braid.

That wasn't always the case.

I used to load my reels with another very expensive premium braid and I genuinely thought it was excellent. I'm not going to say it suddenly became rubbish because I've changed. It didn't.

I just genuinely find Samson 36 Strong every bit as good.

It's cheaper, it's easier to get and, most importantly, it performs.

I've become very particular about braid over the years. I've literally put €80 worth of another premium braid onto a reel, gone fishing once, hated the way it tied knots, stripped it off and threw it in the bin.

Life's too short to fish with line you don't trust. For me, 36 Strong gets the important stuff right.

The abrasion resistance is probably unmatched by anything I've used. Independent testing has also shown it breaking considerably higher than its rated breaking strain, which gives me a lot of confidence around the sort of ground I fish.

It doesn't get waterlogged. That's something you really notice during a long session. My casting remains consistent rather than the braid gradually taking on water and changing how it behaves as the hours go by.

Then there's knot tying. That's the biggest one for me.

A huge amount of my fishing is done in the dark. If I'm tying knots with a headtorch on, potentially with wet hands and a sea running in front of me, I don't want braid that's awkward, slippery or otherwise temperamental.

36 Strong ties a really good knot and I trust it.

For reference, I'm currently running:

Shimano Stella 4000M FK – 15lb Samson 36 Strong
Shimano Vanford FA C3000XG – 15lb Samson 36 Strong
Shimano Twin Power FE 4000MHG – 20lb Samson 36 Strong
Shimano Ultegra C5000XG – 20lb Samson 36 Strong

Now, I should also be completely transparent here.

I work with Samson.

But I genuinely buy this braid myself and I've got the receipts to prove it. Nobody is giving me free spools and telling me what to say about them. It's on every reel because I genuinely rate it that highly.

Is there any potential downside to it?

Yep.

The fluorescent yellow leeches colour after a while.

I just don't care.

A huge amount of my own fishing is in the pitch black where the stuff would need to be radioactive for me to see it anyway. Even during the day I generally have to turn braid into the light to see it properly.

If losing some fluorescent yellow over time is the trade-off for everything else I get from the line, I'll happily take it.

Shimano Heavy? Absolutely.

Looking over this lineup, it's obvious that Shimano dominates it.

That's no accident.

I've used a lot of tackle over the years and I keep coming back to Shimano because, quite simply, I find the quality exceptional and very difficult to beat.

That doesn't mean everything Shimano makes is automatically the right tool for every job. The Long Cast proves that. Nor does it mean somebody getting started needs to spend anything remotely close to what some of these outfits cost.

They don't.

There are some fantastic rods and reels available at much more sensible prices and, when somebody asks me what they should buy, that's why I start with them rather than telling them what I use.

Budget. Ground. Lures. Where they're fishing.

Then find the best tool for the job.

My own lineup has developed the same way, just over a much longer period of time. The different rod lengths are deliberate. The different braid strengths are deliberate. The 4000M reels and the ability to move them between rods are deliberate. Even the C5000 Ultegra on the guiding outfit is there for a reason.

And when the sea decides the usual open coast setups aren't enough, out comes the 12-foot Samson.

They're tools. Very nice tools in some cases, admittedly, but tools nonetheless.

They've earned their place over the years, and I can't see that changing any time soon.

My Current Bass Fishing Rod & Reel Lineup - What I Use and Why