Further North

Wow on that wire! I don't cast big lures, but I never go above 50#. Is the heavy stuff so the bigger lures don't snap on a cast?

@Scott F covered most of it well. ...but yes, you will need a wire bite guard. I tie tieable wire into my main line, when put a swivel at the end of the wire. This eliminates an upper swivel bashing into your guides.

Fly rod and poppers. Seriously.

It's not a tiger. Tigers look like this: That's a 38" my friend Jeff from Red Cedar Fly Fishing caught in a local river last November. I was on the oars, and told him to chuck a cast at a mid-river log...and boom...

One to four weeks, depending on where you are, the weather, and water temp.

It's the end of spawning activity. The fish need to recover from the impact spawning has on them.

Casting gear is more accurate, casts as far, and it's easier to stay in contact with the line during a retrieve than on a spinning rod.

...and that's why I debarb all my hooks, right there.

I use casting gear - down to BFS - for everything I used to use spinning rods for. It's better in every way I can think of.

The most fun you can have catching panfish is with a 4 or 5 wt. fly rod and little foam spiders or poppers.

These all work on our local rivers. Not sure if they fall into the "bright" category.

You'll notice, particularly at the end of a long day on the water.

Other than the tools used to put the fly/lure in front of the fish, there's no useful difference between fly fishing for bass (or anything else) and using conventional gear. The process is the same: Find out where they are. Find out what they want to eat. Show it to them.

Even jerk baits aren't really my thing, but I get it. My favorite is small rivers in a drift boat...I'll take that over big open water every time.

Same here. I find the style of fishing on Lake Erie - which I understand to to be mostly jigging - to be a thing I don't care for. If others like it, that's great!