I’ll bet you’ve got a fishing buddy who has a garage full of rods — seemingly one for every occasion. He may even use them all, but does he really need all of them? Or, more importantly, how many rods do you need?

Would it surprise you if I said three? That’s the magic number. With three carefully chosen rod and reel combos, you can catch practically any fish that swims on the west coast of Florida. Of course, there’s no law that says you have to stop at three — you can customize or specialize yourself into owning dozens of rods. But three are all it really takes.