Sphynx

As a general rule? Or as a once in a while sort of thing? There are days they get lock jaw and won't hit much of anything, and there are days when they will hit just about anything you put in front of their face, not sure it's a terribly helpful answer but "it depends" is all I can come up with.

Yup, hung up a whopper plopper on a dock on the Columbia and went and got it, the two guys who were putting in their boat at the nearby launch didn't believe me when I told them I was going to strip and go get my lure and that they ought to look away if they didn't want to see...trouble for them is after 6 years in the Infantry there is no shame left in me, and I couldn't care less what the old duffers saw, or thought about it, but I got my plopper back, and the guys said they would never mistake me for the sort of guy who doesn't do what he says ever again.

Oof...6 for a whole year? Well, I guess I would have to say the following... Soft Plastics 1) Stick bait - probably a Yum Dinger, but I pretty much buy whatever is on sale/most affordable. Rig it a million ways, cut it down and you have a ned rig bait. 2) A Craw imitation - something like the Biospawn Vilebug would work, keep the appendages attached for a beaver style action, tear them free for more action 3) Paddle Tail Swimbait - Great on it's own, great as a trailer, underspins, all sorts of versatility, and with only 3 soft plastic lures it better be versatile Hard Baits 1) Jig - Dunno if we are allowed a full category or not, if so great, if not it'd be an Arkie style head, swim it, hop bottom with it, redneck engineer a blade on it, pitch, flip, punch, you can do pretty much anything with it. 2) Squarebill Crankbait - I think I could have gone either with this, or with a jerkbait, really a toss up, but with a limited number of baits I guess one's gotta win right? For a mostly bank angler the Squarebill is a better choice usually, and that's mostly how I fish. 3) Hollowbody Frog - Teckel Sprinker in particular, this can basically cover anything in the topwater realm, but I could almost say a walking bait would satisfy as well, I just feel that with this frog I can do a few more things than a walking bait can, at the possible cost of missing the hookups on a few more fish. I don't think I'd ever put this list to practical use, but I would feel reasonably prepared if I were to show up at a tournament as a co-angler with a bag containing just these baits, I can absolutely see some places in this list that are glaring weaknesses, I just can't think of another combination of baits that doesn't leave even bigger holes in what I can cover...I'd probably be able to fish all of this on about 3 or 4 rods too...so it wouldn't be the most obnoxious setup for a back boat day.

Towing capacity of a frontier is showing between ~6250 and ~6750 pounds

I haven't had a chance to go after smallmouth in the early spring, this will be my first early season chasing them, but I do know that last year the most productive hardbaits for me were the Topwater Popper, lipless crankbait, and the squarebill, from a numbers standpoint the squarebill caught the most by a wide margin, fishing a large river from the bank, which is not exactly the situation you'll be dealing with I expect.

No "normal events" ruin any day of fishing for me, I simply do not give anybody the required give a d**n to ruin a day, nor could any other "normal" condition do it, "a bad day of fishing is better than the best day of work" and all, in fact the only thing that has ever stopped me dead in my tracks from fishing on a day I wanted to is when whatever it is that's wrong with my back decides that feeling anything from my waist down isn't a necessary thing, that has a funny way of impeding my plans in an agitating way.

If your a bank guy, you will have to square with the fact that you won't get great access everywhere, some places it's a safety thing, other places it's flat out not possible to get to or fish from, still other times it's a matter of effort and what risks/time you consider worth considering to get to a different spot, the best you can do in places with limited access is to fish what you DO have available thoroughly, fast, slow, big medium and small baits in different colors on top, middle and bottom, even with all that your still going to take your fair share of L's, sometimes you simply can't get to where the active fish are feeding and there's not a thing to be done about it except tip your cap, try to utilize your time profitably while out in other ways, and get them next time.

Versatility and confidence baits would be my big watchwords here, being able to cover the column, with baits YOU are confident in is going to make things more enjoyable for you, something like the venerable 7'MHF casting, a 6'8"MXF casting, 7'MF spinning, and a cranking stick chosen depending on what I'm expecting to walk into would probably be my choice, can drag bottom, burn a bottom presentation with a crankbait, swim a jig, crankbait, jerkbait in the middle, and throw both moving and stationary topwater presentations, in larger and more finesse applications with those rods, if they aren't having any of that then I guess I won't be catching them that day and will have to just tip my cap, and try to get them the next time...I'd probably switch out the shorter casting rod for my frogging rod during warmer weather.

550 Parachute cord does the trick for me, I don't gut it but you probably could to save some bulk and still have a very durable lead.

Yep, I have caught bass on a fly rod, favorite patterns of mine are foam poppers, deer hair poppers, sneaky Pete's, clouser minnows, wooly bugger, and mouse/rat patterns...as to rod weight, it's definitely possible to catch them on a 5 weight, you can't be locking down the drag, but if you are reasonably competent at palming a reel (I'm guessing you are given your background) you shouldn't have too much trouble, I mostly use my 8wt, but it can certainly be done with less.

No, it is not required as far as I know, but I don't like taking chances on something like that, you get Mr. Green-Britches (or the USCG) doing an inspection on your boat and that one on your boat doesn't work for whatever reason, an air horn in a can could save your bacon, and demonstrate that you pay attention to little things and are safety conscious, sort of like carrying an extra life jacket, I am certain lots of guys go without, but I find it cheap insurance.

Haven't seen it listed, so a USCG approved air horn independent of any that might be installed on your boat...2 is 1, 1 is none principle for safety equipment.

I generally will lump most of those colors together with perch colors, sunfish colors, all the "non-shad" baitfish, one works as well as another mostly and if they are the primary forage for bass when/where I am fishing I will throw one, the dirtier the water the more bold a color pattern I like to use unless the fish are telling me something different

Bad angler? Not really, do I ever feel like I got temporary amnesia and can't figure them out and seemingly forget everything I know about how to fit the pieces together? Every d**n time I get skunked, just a part of the game man, I bet you big money that even the pro's making big money would tell you they get a skunk every now and then, and those guys fish a LOT

If you do a web search for how to manage at home ponds you'll find out all kinds of information about what creates the conditions for monster fish, a huge part of it is the consistency of food, there is some other factors as well that I can't remember off hand but it's worth the investigation...if it applies to at home ponds, it's very likely that other bodies of water providing the same conditions would respond similarly.

I wouldn't doubt that a bit, and like I said it's no place of mine to tell another person how they should or shouldn't behave, I expect they are adults capable of reasoning out their own decisions, as to crappie, I don't know if there are any fish easier to catch consistently than crappie, and I have never felt the need to specifically target them during the spawn, if you find trees, brush piles, etc in the lake, you have almost certainly found the crappie, it's my belief that fish spawning means more fun for me over the long term, and I certainly like the sounds of that.

I am a huge proponent of hunting big fish prespawn, that's probably the best chance you'll ever have of hooking up on whatever qualifies as a trophy sized fish in your area, but as to bed fishing, I don't make it a point to go, I have done it in the past, but a big part of my hesitation anymore is precisely because "I don't know" isn't an answer I am comfortable with, I don't like to run other people's lives for them, not my place to tell folks whether they ought to do, or not do anything, but for my part, I will be trying not to disturb spawning fish until the answer about what happens to bedding fish that are caught ends up being much more clear and decided that it's not a harmful practice.

No, but this is the unfortunate reality of living in the modern world, at least in North America, it seems a bit excessive to most people but fish and game violations can have some very, very serious ramifications lasting for your whole life, so it's better to make dang sure your right before you do anything wrong.

A quick look at North Dakota's laws (Your profile lists Brantford and I'm assuming it's ND) shows that you are going to have some legal questions to answer before you go anywhere with this idea and I strongly recommend you contact your local Department of Fish and Game (after obtaining your parents permission, as a minor you do require this in almost any jurisdiction I have heard of in North America) and ask them for guidance, this Department is broadly authorized to deal with and enforce game laws and can likely provide answers on this topic, or if nothing else direct you to the applicable authorities who can.

I have a number of Curado's of one sort or other, big fan of that line of products.

I'd be tying on a dropshot if I were going to fish in that sort of slop, of course, the other people who have answered have given plenty of good reasons to avoid doing so in the first place, the beauty of a drop shot is that you get basically endless control of how far off the bottom your bait is going to end up...so it's worth learning when you need that kind of control.

Knots weaken over time, gotta say I agree with @WRB on this, your going to find this a costly amusement trying to take shortcuts, you might get away with it catching smaller fish, but when you start catching great big fish this approach leads to a lot of break offs, lost lures, and frustration.

You certainly can use a standard 7ft/MHF rod for frogging, now I wouldn't use it for the real heavy slop, but if your not fishing in the real heavy stuff you can get away with it. If you want a -dedicated- frog rod, I see no advantage to buying a MH over a H, but I have thrown a lot of frogs and caught a fair number of fish on one, mostly using Booyah Pad Crashers and Booyah Poppin' Pad Crashers, 6/1 reel and 30lb PowerPro, it's hardly ideal, but I was carrying a 2 rod arsenal on my big rig and it caught fish, I'd feel pretty comfortable fishing a 7'6/HF Lew's American Hero rod, and a 7 or 8 speed reel and 50/65 lb braid, you don't have to spend a ton on a frogging setup, a Lew's American Hero combo and 150 yards of 65lb power pro would set you back about $150 shipped to your door through TW, which is a whole lot less than any combo I typically fish these days.

In my opinion, a frog rod is a great place to save some money, a lot of what you're paying for with higher priced rods is sensitivity for better bite detection...which you simply don't need on a frog rod since you get to use your eyes for bite detection, as long as it comes from a reputable company with a reputation for building durable products you should be ok to spend a bit less.

I guess for me it just depends on the bait in question, I have a very extensive collection of tackle, so the first question I will ask is "does this bait fill a niche that I have personally bemoaned not having any bait available to fill." From there I move down the yes/no answer sheet, the vast majority of the time the answer is "not really, no." Most new baits are either a different take, or a refinement of a previously existing idea in order to specialize it in some way, the next big question I try to answer is "If this doesn't do something altogether new, does it give me any reason to believe that it will be able to replace (and outperform) its competition product that I already own?" This is a yes more often than the previous question (think the evolution of the chatterbait) but still not terribly often, if one of those two big questions (and the related questions they naturally lead to) don't give me a reason to seriously interest myself in the new bait, I will avoid whatever the latest evolution of the mousetrap may be.