Fishes in trees

Those are some old Denny Brauer chunk trailers made by Strike King.  I've got 20 or 30 baits like that , stated in a plastic shoe box somewhere in my fishing shed.   I got them when they were closed out at Walmart - late 90's maybe, somewhere around then.
I wasn't fishing jigs then, so I never gave them an honest try.  They might make better spinner bait or chatter bait trailers.

I'm not a big fan of designating a rig " multi purpose".   Here's my take - let the rigs you already got be your " multi-purpose" rigs.  What is your favorite way to fish?  Jigs/soft plastics?  Reaction Baits?
The point here is that $300 more or less , is a nice chunk of change to get a good rig.  Spend that on your strength - on how you like to fish the best.  If you like "feel" baits, like jigs & soft plastics you could do worse than the advice a few posts earlier.  The Falcon Amistad is a great rod and I want one, in my case other boat issues are going to come first this year.   By the way, should your Falcon rod break after the warranty period is over, they have a very fair replacement rod policy that I've taken advantage of several times, when their rods have broken due to operator error.
 
My point is don't get a rig that will kinda do a bunch of chores ok - get a rig that will do how you like to fish the best very well.   You 'll be happier in the long run.   Next year get another one, then on down the road - get more.   Take care of your stuff and sooner or later you'll have a kit of excellent rods - without any compromise on " multi-purpose".
 
This doesn't always have to cost a bunch of money, either.  I came across my current favorite chatter bait rod in a pawn shop in Warsaw, MO - I stop by that store maybe every other year.  I came across my current favorite pitching rod in the close out rack at Academy Sports - $50 more or less.
 
For me - rod bargains happen much more frequently than reel bargains.   Seems like I never come across reel close outs at a significant savings, but that addiction is a different story . . .

You're in Jackson, MO?   Cape Girardeau County?  You ain't that far from Kentucky Lake?In the other direction you ain't that far from Bull Shoals.   A little bit farther and there is LOZ & Truman and some others I'm sure I missing.   I'm pretty certain that if I were to pull out my Missouri Department of Conservation Atlas there would be some conservation department lakes ( 50 to 300 or so acres) within easy driving distance of your house.
Next, consider that in Missouri, a 4 pound fish is a decent fish.   In any given year, I may catch half a dozen to maybe a dozen in that size.  One that size every time I go out isn't a guarantee.  My whole life of fishing in Missouri, I think I've caught maybe 7 or 8 fish over 7 lbs (only of those I weighed )   I just figure that any fish around 23" or better is around the 7 lb mark.
Last fall at Truman, practicing for the Leavenworth Bass Club's Fishing for Freedom event, I caught a fat largemouth that was about 22 1/2 inches long.  (measurements can be imprecise bouncing around in a bass boat.)  Anyway, I guesstimated that fish to be in the 7 lb range.  
 
My opinion is that in Missouri, while there are fish bigger than 7 lbs swimming in the waters somewhere, a fish bigger than 7 or so is a lifetime achievement.
 
This year I caught 4 fish over 22", 3 of them were kinda skinny - IMO 6 lbs would have been a stretch for them.   One was pretty fat with thick shoulders and a large belly.   The healthy fat fish hit a single spin Coorado blade spinner bait early last year.   The other 3 fish hit a 10 " Power worm - Blue Fleck - 17 lb Abrazx with a 5/16 tungsten.   I was pitching the bait into deeper trees and letting in sink down amongst the limbs.   All the hits came 5 to 6 feet down in 15 or so feet of water.
 
Back to your original post, I don't think a 4 lb fish is terrible, just think that you need to fish more, fish where bigger fish are known to exist.  If you got to go east from home, I think that Kentucky Lake is a much better option than Kincaid Lake, even if it might be a slightly farther drive.
 
 

The fish are shallow . . . or deep . . . or somewhere in-between.  This is an old Buck Perry quote.
 
What it means to me, pertaining to the fall, is that I start looking where I found them last time, then find them or don't.  If I do, try to replicate the pattern on other areas of the lake.  If I don't, fish the next most logical place, and so forth  In the lakes I fish the most, there are almost always going to be fish 10 to 12 feet down, on shelves where the tree/brush line meets the grass line or bare bottom, depending on where in the lake.  Brush to grass transitions, seem to be more bait fish oriented feeders to me.   Brush to sparse bottom seem to be more crawdad feeders.
 
At some point in the fall the fish seem to move shallow in the fall, in lakes with shad, that's what they are doing, following shad.  In lakes without shad, maybe they are just hanging out in the slightly warmer water, chasing targets of opportunity, mostly various minnows & bait fish.  I don't know exactly, I know thats a few places where I seem to find them year in and year out.
 
I am also pretty sure that if you find a ledge 8 to 15 feet down that is home to crawdads, some fish are going to be hanging out there all the time, maybe not very active, but they are there.
 
Your favorite lake is Lake Quivera, that is a private lake I haven't had to opportunity to fish, and its in Kansas, so I haven't bothered to buy a non-resident license.   I have seen it a few times.  I'm not nearly as into trespassing on private subdivision lakes as I was in my youth.  My first guess is that every dock has brush planted around it somewhere, so find the brush.  There is probably both deep & shallow brush depending on which dock and where it is.  I might also look shallow and try to find a spinnerbait or maybe a buzz bait or chatter bait bite.  That should give you some places to start.

My guess would be a "Water Scamp"  The moldings look very similar to mine, and I think that the clearer plastic handle is unique, i.e. I've never seen another pond boat that had a similar handle.
 
Maybe not though, I'm not sure.  Idle curiosity, or do you need to contact the manufacturer for some reason?

If you're using an Alabama Rig, I think that split rings on jig heads is a great idea.  On a couple of occasions last year, I lost one bait off of an A-rig rather than the whole rig because I used a split ring connection.  If you're just throwing a jig, I don't think that it does any good.  Perhaps if you're throwing some kind of scrounger type jig head, then the looser connection might help the action somewhat, serving a similar function to what the snap does on a chatter bait.
 
Really, I don't know.  I don't think I would go to the trouble on just a ball head jig/grub type connection.