Zack Birge has a pretty definitive play-
book for his Favorite Fishing rods.
“Power on the port and spinning on
the starboard,” says Birge. “Generally, I’ll
have six to eight power combos on the
port side for casting and winding and any
spinning, flipping or follow-up type baits
on the starboard side. Twelve rods total is
my comfort zone.”
Mark Daniels Jr. follows Birge’s strate-
gy for his Favorite rods as well.
“It’s faster-moving, reaction baits on
the port and slower-moving and finesse
baits on the starboard,” says MDJ.
“At least that’s the way the day begins,
anyway,” he says, laughing. “When I start
digging out extra rods, they can get a little
jumbled. Having 20 out at one time is the
limit for me.”
When it comes to arranging his Abu
Garcias on the deck, Justin Lucas goes by
rod length.
“I tend to keep all my longer rods –
anything over 7 feet, like flipping sticks or
longer swimbait rods – on the passenger
side [port],” Lucas says. “Spinning rods
and any rods 7 feet or under typically go
on the driver’s side due to the console.”
Lucas likes to keep his deck as clear as
possible, preferring to only have four or
five rods out at a time if he can help it.
Ott DeFoe’s preferred number of rods
on the deck at any time also is five, which
he opts to put all on the starboard side to
keep the port side clear.
“If I go over five rods on the deck, I’ll
start splitting them up between sides,” he
says. “For some reason, I like all treble-
hook lures on one side and all single-hook
lures on the other side.”
In contrast to Lucas and DeFoe, Jacob
Wheeler likes a lot of rods on the deck.
He keeps roughly 18 to 20 Duckett
Fishing rods out during practice and
then cuts back to 10 to 15 rods during the
tournament.
“Having a lot of rods on the deck is like
a security blanket to me,” Wheeler
explains. “I’ll put rods out that I know I
probably won’t even use, just to have rods
on the deck.”
Though Wheeler does not necessarily
divide his rods up between the two sides,
the ones he uses the most during the day
will be closest to him, and the bench-
warmers are pushed out to the sides.
APRIL-MAY 2020 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | FLWFISHING.COM
Bryan Thrift has a simple rule for the
arrangement of his Fitzgerald Fishing
rods on his deck: Shallow, bank-running
lures go on the port side, and deeper, off-
shore stuff goes on the starboard side. The
arrangement is set up for an extreme level
of efficiency.
“I do it that way so I only have to
unstrap and strap one side when running
and gunning shallow stuff,” explains
Thrift, who’s always looking for an advan-
tage. “Unstrapping two sides just to make
a couple of casts is a waste of time.”
Thrift keeps the longest rods farthest
to the outside and the shortest rods to the
inside.
“That’s really more about keeping the
long-handled rods out along the gunwale
and the short-handled rods to the interior
to free up room around me.”
Thrift adds that his comfort zone is
usually between 14 and 18 rods on the
deck at any time. Though, when asked if
the number of rods has to be an even
number, Thrift claims he’s not that
obsessed.
“Nope. In fact, having exactly 13 rods
on the deck is just fine with me.”
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