Bluebasser86

Most everything has been covered already but it's possible you're overthinking it also. The lake near my house isn't real deep but has some good offshore structure like rocky drop offs, a roadbed, a couple sunken docks, several brushpiles, but it's also completely rimmed with residential docks. The last couple times out, I've been stubborn and stuck to trying to fish the offshore fish, with pretty minimal success minus chasing roamers on scope, those fish are chasing YOY shad and have their feedbags on, but they're also almost all smaller than 15". Each trip, I eventually get frustrated and give up on the offshore fish and start skipping docks with an urchin and fishing the slop with a frog, and the bites start coming and they've been bigger fish every time. I see the other boats, and every person I pass is fishing a wacky rig under the docks, or a finesse bait under them. I haven't seen anyone fishing the frog and only a couple urchins and they're just fishing the edges, not skipping under the docks.

The fish were right where everyone else is fishing, I just had to do something different to make them bite.

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/catpage-DOUBLECOL.html

The hammered blades are hard to find on a bait in the stores anymore, I have to make my own to get those.

Let him go with you or shop online for a new reel, that thing is done.

Gross, that picture is plain offensive.

I prefer the one that fish are eating.

If it's up to me, it would be the jerkbait, because I have a strong dislike for fishing cranks. The fish often like to eat cranks this time of year though, so I fish them.

Jerkbaits I fish are the MB 110, 110+1, Jr, and Jr +1, 6th Sense Provoke and +1, MB X-Nanahan and +1, Duo Realis Rozante 77sp, Berkley Stunna 112 and +1, Head Hunter HH Minnow, and the Yo-Zuri 3DB.

Crankbaits are any of the Berkley Frittside, Spro Rock Crawlers, Wiggle Warts, #5 or #7 Shad Raps, Berkley Flicker Shad Shallow, 6th Sense Pressure Series, and Berkley Money Badger.

This is the best toad toter buzzbait I've found.
https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Crock-O-Gator_X-Bite_Skirtless_Buzzbaits/descpage-CRKOGX.html

Looks like a Siebert Fogy to me.

Sapphire blue is the best color I've found when the water turns green. I love to fish a blue bladed jig in that color water. Don't know why it works so well, but it just does. 

I’d go with the #1, the 2.8 is tiny. I have a pack and wish I hadn’t bought them, haven’t found any use for them.

Chapstick

I tie the skirt on mine and use straight shank flipping hooks. Hookups don't seem to be an issue. 

You’ll have options but like was mentioned, it depends what you consider close. There’s quite a few options in that hour range. Not near as much water as what you’re use to in Minnesota, and it’s completely different fishing, but it’s all fishable by kayak I promise. I’m not sure what you’re use to with wind in Minnesota, but in that area, 20+ mph is pretty normal and 30-40 mph winds isn’t uncommon.

https://ibb.co/jV0Kv2m

 

They're a good bait and that is one of my favorite colors they make. It's a mass produced plastic bait, so I wouldn't worry about saving it for collectors or anything. 

It's good line but it color bleeds very badly. Even so, I've had some on my grass flipping rod for a couple years now and it's done what I've needed it to do. 

I've caught smallmouth to over 5 3/4lbs and wipers over 8lbs that will outpull any bass out there. I use a spinning rod with 8lb flouro and play them carefully.  Never had any issues with the hooks unless I net them and the hooks get stuck in the net. 

I just use a very slow retrieve with them paired with a bulky trailer to allow for as slow a retrieve as possible. I've caught them in water down in the low 40's pretty well on them. The biggest key for them to be effective in cold water in my experience is some grass. If there's no grass, I'm not even going to try them. 

I like to see other people catch fish almost as much as I like to catch them myself, so I'm always talking about what worked for me. Having a Youtube channel would be pretty counterproductive if I was trying to keep secrets also. I've seen too many times when 2 people in a boat are fishing almost the same thing and 1 of them is catching while the other isn't to worry about someone else fishing what I'm fishing with. 

Layers and quality outerwear. Invested in a set of heavyweight merino wool thermals and a Simms Challenger insulated suit. I also get out and walk around sometimes if I do get cold. 

I've had better success with the Bang-O than the floating Rapala when targeting bass for whatever reason. Black and silver foil is an old school color but it's still effective.
 

Owner ST 36 are my main hook of choice. The Berkley Fusion 19 trebles are also very nice and an overlooked option as well. 

They love a Ned rig, but I've caught them on all kinds of stuff fishing for bass. Caught one on a 3/8oz bladed jig this year. I've caught several on 1/2oz lipless, wiggle warts, even caught 2 of them on 1/2oz flipping jigs. Stocker trout are kind of like Forrest Gump.

First off, welcome to the forum.
 
Second, you're going to overwhelm yourself at the rate you're going. You need to focus on being safe as a new boat owner. Operating a boat is not the same as a car if you've never done it. Make sure you know and understand the rules for operating on the water.
 
Third, fish your strengths and do what you're comfortable with. I can't claim to have tons of tournament experience, but of all the ones I've done well in, I did what I'm good at doing and stuck with it. Especially in a big bass tournament where you're only after one big bite. Focus on the likely areas and fish them hard. 

I can't slow down when I get a fast reel and I'm using a moving bait, I've tried, it doesn't work. Fishing a deep crank or big spinnerbait with an 8.1 reel is exhausting too, mentally and physically.
 I used the green Curados for years for everything and caught who knows how many fish on them. If I had to pick one ratio for the rest of my life, it'd be something in the 6.2 range. 8.1 is great for the specific uses I have for it, but the 6 ratio reels are my workhorses that could make work in place of those specialty reels if I needed to. 

At some point you're just going to have to get out and let the bass answer the questions for you. Will a bass eat a finesse jig with a Keitech trailer? Sure. Is it the best option? Probably not. What's the best finesse jig trailer? Depends on so many different variables that nobody can really give you a perfect answer because even in a tournament where a guy might win on a finesse jig, the bass might have eaten another one better if someone would have just fished it.
 
Fishing is about trial and error, mostly the latter at the beginning. The key is learning from those failures and how to avoid them and paying attention to the successes and learning how to duplicate them. You can ask every question you can possibly think of until the end of time about every possible little detail of fishing and still not have learned half as much as the guy who gets out there and grinds on the water to actually figure out the answer to his questions.