Well, I have 12 in the boat all the time and I'm still not catching them, so I must not have enough in there yet....

13 sounds about right. A lot of it has to do with how big your deck is and how you can comfortaley walk around without stepping on them while casting and then fighting your fish.

Less is more. Try to develope a particular craft or two. You don't need 50 rods to catch fish. You just need confidence in what you are throwing.

I have 5 confidence baits that I have won all my tournaments on. They are each specific for the time of day. If I am not getting bit then it is time to move.

- Spook - first two hours of day light. There will only be 3 great spots on the whole lake and it takes many trips to find those 3 spots. Once I do find them then I can cover all 3 if I have to in that two hour period. My partner will be backing up my Spook on every busy that I park the Spook beside. Sometimes they just don't want to blow up on it; but will get excited and take the Pinch Weighted Fluke.

- Spinner Bait - The 3 and 4 hour is fished slow rolling my spinner bait in the mid range depth of 5 to 10 ft. just out from where I caught the best top water fish. My partner will be throwing a Short Crig 1/8 oz. with a Ring Fry or Fluke.

- 1/2 oz. Crig. - One is dragging a big Brush Hog and the other a small Brush Hog. At 11:00 we are going deep from 20 to 30 ft. on Irregular Contours that are close to the shallow water spots that were producing fish. It takes time on the water to find these spots also. I will spend one hour or less on each of these 3 deep water spots that have produced in the past.

All of us have gone through the same no catching days that you had. Working and learning a lake is not easy. It takes commitment to just that one lake for a long time which is usually a year for me. I have to fish on the average of 60 top water spots to find 3 good spots. You have to do the same to find the mid range spots for mid morning and another 60 spots to find 3 good deep water spots for the afternoon. I work every lake the same and after a few years you begin to recognize these best spots as you study your paper maps and Nav. Maps. Then the learning curve begins to shorten some. It still takes fishing a lot of spots to find the fish unless you carry a LUCKY Buckeye in your pocket.

Always 1 short

The more , The better

Sad truth is, all you NEED is one.... Texas rigged watermelon red trick work/baby brush hog will catch bass all day.

Matter in fact, I was screwing around one evening just fishing a local pond here in Pearland. There was a girl there that was maybe 10ish years old with a stick, line, and a perch hook with a blue trick worm. She would just flip it underneath trees and around drainage pipes and I she had to pull out at least 10 or so. Nothing big, but solid 1-1.5 pounders.

When I saw that it really got me to thinking about folks having 20 rods on deck that are $400 a piece trying to catch fish, when you got this kid with a stick and line tearing them up.

Anyway, I usually have 6 on deck. Spinnerbait, plastic, jig, topwater, diver, and a rattle trap. However, in all reality, I only use probably 2 of them throughout the whole day and catch as many as the next guy.

I'm not talking down to the folks that do have 20 rods laid out on deck, but the reality of it all is that you only need one..

Sounds like a good place to start with lots of activity. However, bass don't normally "roll on top" if they are feeding. It is an aggressive slashing sound when they are feeding and chasing shad or bluegill on the surface. If you are seeing fish rolling on the surface, it is most likely some type of rough fish.

When bass are chasing bait near the surface, there is no mistake that they are feeding.

With regards to your question about how many rods do you need to catch bass?

I would start with a rod with a small topwater like a shad colored Yellow Magic on one. A rod with a 3/8 oz chart & white spinnerbait on the other or a small 1.5 size shad colored squarebill crankbait and a white Fluke rigged weightless on another rod.

Those three will get you started at daylight. If you don't get bit on one of those, find another spot.

I usually have 8 to fish different depths and structure and 5 more rigged in the rod box. Hard to change rigs and run the trolling motor at the same time especially if it's windy and I'm fishing alone. I don't have Talons or an Ultrex so it just makes sense to try and be prepared for different situations. The logical answer to the OP's question is it just takes one rod to catch a bass but if you're fishing all day you're gonna need more or else keep re-rigging.

Wired 2 Fish has an excellent set of articles on the 6 rod system, along with the reels to match. I sat down one day and read through it, matched up what I owned and realized that 2-3 of each was not nearly enough! Actually it made me think more about what rod and reel combination I used, made a couple of adjustments, but I still may have 8-10 out when I am in my boat. Where it really helped me was when I fish as a co-angler, I try to look at combos that are mult-technique and not just on application.

Years ago when I used to fish tournaments I thought I needed 20 rods and actually had more than that rigged and ready. As I mellowed with age and just fish for recreation I've narrowed my collection down to 8 rods and I probably catch more.

I have 11 on deck, 12 in the rod box, and my wife has 6-7 at the back of the boat. I have fun fishing a lot of different baits so I keep a variety tied on all the time.

'bout 80

Yeah, "need" doesn't have much to do with our obsession... I "like" having 12 rods in my collection, down from the 24 or so I once had. I could probably get by with 4-6... You can Google the 6 Rod System online and get a pretty good idea of one approach.

I started with 2 or 3, moved up to around 8 and was having a few good days but many 1 fish days in the Summer. I dropped it down to pulling 2 and sometimes 3 out and fishing those all day and my numbers really went up. Now it is rare that I'll ever pull out more than 3 on a trip.