Tend to have rod/ reels for very specific applications and keep them made up and ready to go.It's a habit from when I lived in East Yorks and had awesome pike fishing 5 minutes from my door, but 2 small kids. So everything was grabbing an hour or so whenever I could and literally I'd get the disapproving nod from the boss, grab a float rod for the canal and drains, paternoster rods for the river if I had livies in the tank or deadbait rods if I didn't. And I'd be fishing 10 minutes later, but often just the last hour of light. I caught my PB of 28-12 doing this, after getting a tip-off from a match angler as he weighed in ,and I was on a Sunday afternoon family walk. An hour later, that fish was in the net.
Doesn't make as much sense for chub and barbel fishing as I'm terrible for not feeding the swim properly and letting them get on the feed. It's too easy to get a bait in when the rods are all made up.
Also it's easy to grab a pair of rods you may not have used for a while and not check the line(mono)which we all know deteriorates even in storage. This happened last trip to the Wye when I used Chimera 3s that had been sat in storage for months and fortunately I did check the line and the first 30-50 ft on both reels was as weak as cotton, even though it had been renewed in close season.
So yes I do have a rod/reel combo for all my regular fishing but it's not necessary.Useful if you're busy and want gear ready to go. One of my pals is terrible for crying off ' cos his gear isn't sorted', whatever that means.