bunkerbstr

Wow! Excellent job! Thanks for taking the time with the post & pics. Kudos!

Picking just one is tough to do. I like the Red Eye Shad, Aruku, Xcalibur, 6th Sense, Bill Lewis and the old SK Diamond Shads have been working for me lately. There are a ton of them out there just pick up a few of each brand and run them to see which one(s) work best. As others have mentioned, note the hooks on each (some come with great hooks, some do not) and swap them out as needed.

Jackall Giron is pretty decent bait.

Have used it for couple years now. The full size version only (I think there are three sizes now?). Interesting bait. I have never added anything to the tail eyelet, but have hung a light weight off the chin. It definitely helped it sink faster but didn't do much with it that way so I use it the way it arrived (which is probably a mistake). I don't think this bait needs anymore drawing power than the swimming motion and appearance that it comes with -- Adding a blade is worth a try I guess, but honestly, don't think you really need to unless you're fishing dirty water in which case, maybe another bait is a better option? However, try everything that you can think of, it could be the ticket. No rules.. I use it on a swimbait rod rated 1-4 ounces, 300 Curado E and 20 pound fluorocarbon line. Long cast, slow retrieve with occasional twitches - play around with retrieves to see what works for you. The bait swims nicely, definitely draws attention and if you look at the bait from an engineering standpoint it's pretty impressive. The pectoral fins are the diving plane, it floats upright with just the back barely breaching the surface, rotating trebles, and as you mentioned - options with add-on components are a plus if you ask me. Quality rings and hooks too. Lots of follows and caught a few fish on the bait. It dives roughly 3 feet or so on a long cast (with no weight added). Cool bait overall and would recommend giving it some water time. Good luck

Lipless baits - Bill Lewis and/or SK Red Eye Shad. Swimbaits always get love - Keitech, Hudds, Osprey, Boom Booms, etc.

Silver Buddy all the way. Blade is thinner than anything else I've used, thus gives more vibe. You can replace the hooks on the 1/2 oz with #6 bronze (and #4 on the 3/4 oz) either by snipping the eyelet on the hook & bending slightly or add split rings (which I don't do). I've caught thousands of fish on them that way and maybe once or twice the hooks bent out and they were from giant Potomac catfish. You do have to use bronze hooks though (Gamakatsu round bends are perfect) as the nickel hooks will break if you try to open them up.

I like bone, flitter shad, black and bullfrog from Heddon.

Unfortunately you're out of luck here. The Xcalibur brand is no longer around - it was the old rotating trebles (Xcalibur) that came equipped on many of the now Pradco baits. The Pop-R, Spit'n Image, Poppin Image and the very popular (and hard to find) Xcalibur One Knocker lipless crankbait to name a few. Heddon was/is the company that made them. I don't own any of the new versions, though I do have a few of the 'Xcalibur versions' (equipped with those hooks which at the time were revolutionary). I believe I bought them in the early 90's - give or take. They're a cool bait, few different sizes back then, walk very well and get bit. Bill Dance had his name on the models I own. I still keep them in my box and use them occasionally. if you're looking to buy that specific version, ebay is the place to look. Pradco is the holding company for quite a few bait companies today. www.lurenet.com

TX rig them mostly. Weight depends on depth - usually 1/4 - 3/8. Swim slowly through grass. Works in clear or dirty water, just choose color accordingly: Clear - Watermelon, green pumpkin Dirty - Junebug, Red Shad

Tough call. Likely difficult to find them on ebay or something like that and with Gander going out of business it sounds like you're out of luck. Surely Zoom and/or SK would have something similar, especially Zoom, I don't think there is a color they don't make. Good luck though, I/we have all been there.

Strike King definitely has more options out there than GYCB which makes this a tough choice. However, there's been quite a few times that I've bought SK hard baits (crankbaits) in particular that were junk right out of the package. SK plastics are good though, no complaints. That said, I'd go with GYCB - made here and I don't recall any quality issues other than their plastics tear up faster than anything out there. BUT, they work, so who cares. GYCB gets my vote.

Lipless bait, square bill crankbait and as water cools a jerkbait.

I've used the 10" Hinge worm for several years. Definitely has it's place in the box and does work well when the fish want a bigger worm. I use/rig the Ribbon Hinge worm a couple of ways -- Standard TX rig, typically a 1/2 ounce bullet weight and a 5/0 EWG style hook. It also works very well on a c-rig, use the same 5/0 EWG hook and weight of your choice. For whatever reason the fish don't always want to eat a bigger worm though, so if you're not getting big in an area where you know there are fish, switch it up. Some guys live and die by using one bait, don't be that guy. Best test would be when you're on the fish, catching them good, toss out the 10" Hinge worm and get bit. Confidence goes up tremendously, Bigger worms are great and fun to use. I usually always have on the deck during summer. Good luck

Either tie on a new skirt using braid or rip off the stock rattle and replace with a skirt collar that has rattle holders build into it.

I have a few of the Falcon FTO 501 boxes. Plano now produces a similar box, I'm not sure of the model number though. Permanent dividers, latches on four sides and they're marked on the bottom for hook sizes if that matters. Great boxes, highly recommend.