Inflatable Raft Bum

Southern Illinois (public waters) 1.5~ 2 lb.

I wasn't trying to insult your gar... (How is a stickbait more sporting than the rope?, the rope doesnt even have hooks.. LOL)

Cut cheap yellow nylon rope in 6" sections and throw that out there. Their teeth get all caught in the rope and (from what i understand) they stay buttoned up all the way back for a landing. (But then you have to touch them, yuk, trash fish)

Check your scale against a certified scale. I had a similar digital scale that was OVER a pound off. That fish looks over 5lb to me, unless you are a hobbit or something. Check your scale. Beautiful healthy athletic bass in the absolute prime of its life, i bet it fought like hell depending on your water temp. (Replying to the post immediately previous to mine)

Your included transducer looks plenty ice fishing (mount to a vert. 2"x4") friendly, and yes designed for transom mount

Yes, just look on you tube etc,.. Plenty of info out there. It needs mounted in a very specific location, AND YOU WANT TO DO IT ONCE.. Best bet is (on aluminum boats anyway) install a teflon puck pad on the rear of the boat ONE TIME, TWO HEAVILY CAULKED SCREWS,.. Any future outer hull "in water" accessories mount to this pad vs penetrating the hull 15 times over. (Wish i had a link, i dont) The unit you are looking at is a basic unit, IT HAS TEMP, your golden. (Be ready for others to say you need a $600 HD unit, thats fine,.. There's tons of opinions on these units. I'm done with unnecessarily expensive gear. I'm looking for, depth, temp, thermocline, if it marks fish (or should i say air pockets ) great.. Still doesn't tell you what kind of fish (air pockets) its marking) Keep it simple, heads up,... Look forward and keep on casting.

Yes, thats the transmit and receive sounder. It needs to be mounted solidly in either scenario. Choose a brand that allows you to choose your transducer style, i have heard Hummingbird allows you to do so.

Best jig for rip rap is one that looks and acts just like a Norman Deep Little N

Thats fine for a starter depth finder. For ice fishing you will need to rig something to hold the transducer vertical and still. Temp is very important, most have that on even basic units now. You will likely start with this, then go super expensive three years later, only to realize this entry level unit IS JUST FINE for basic shallow water fishing. (Under 50') Save your money in the future and just stay basic, you can tick away thousands needlessly on these devices, money better spent on a nice used outboard or small jon boat. Power your unit with a 12volt 7Ah battery off Amazon and your set. Powersonic is the best brand in that size.. (I'm a fire alarm tech, thats the brand we use everyday, good batteries)

In current, facing upsteam.. All you can do is mimic a live shad or minnow in some way. You would have to do some kind of funky rig w/ weight below the lure and the fluke suspended in the current, relatively stationary up stream from them and slowly work it back to them. Your certain they were smallmouth?

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Puramid State Park in the avatar?

So worse case, fish get smarter.. AND BIGGER, and more plentiful.. And harder to catch. More of a challenge, cool! (I'm kidding, your post is interesting.. I cant explain what i'm thinking properly, but the nature of bass well, related to feeding.. Is wide open throttle. If your hunch were true i would think the fish on long fished impoundment's would get almost unbearably hard, but its not.. )

But what do tou really think? LOL THERES WHITE, and then there's all the other lesser colors.

Where do strip pits fit in (with median depths of over 50' LOL )