I would love to fish Missouri and Arkansas for Bass and pan fish. Those are some really nice fish, a BIG Bass in Minnesota is 7LBs but on a good day you may get 1 that size. 3 to 5 pounders are relatively plentiful and to catch 35 lbs of them in a day is a good day

https://jemstone90.wixsite.com/bigmnfish/copy-of-largemouth-bass-1

I have had some of the best fish camping and cooking fillets on a Colman stove. When your eating the fillets and the carcass is still flopping around in the garbage can you know its fresh. Usually I have a 20oz hammer to calm their nerves with but when the fish are eating other fish (their MAIN food source) they are not thinking about how much it hurts being swallowed whole and dying while they are being dissolved in the digestive juices of a bigger fish! I have been reeling in a nice large mouth and had a Musky hit it, I have also had a big Pike hit a smaller Pike as I was reeling it in. They are FISH get over it!
https://jemstone90.wixsite.com/bigmnfish/portfolio-2

I fish quite a bit and collect tackle for a hobby, I thought about creating my own and realized I could buy better tackle than I could make for less money than I could make it for. Your home made stuff looks pretty good but this is just a tiny bit of what is available at the store.

https://jemstone90.wixsite.com/bigmnfish/hard-tackle

MN DNR warns about eating fish caught from ANY natural body of water, stating pregnant women or women wanting to become pregnant or children under the age of 15 should not eat ANY fish. Apparently its OK for the rest of us to eat carcinogens and heavy metals? Remember Minnesota has some of the CLEANEST lakes in the country!

Fatheads and sucker minnows will ALWAYS catch Bass if they are in the water

If you follow the link I posted you see I don't waste my time or money chasing Walleye. When I go fishing I want to catch dozens of fish, not just a couple of Walleye. There is a Byerlys 2 street lights down Shoreline Drive from home so I stop and pickup Walleye if I really want to eat Walleye, and its already clean. I know a lot of you think it is worth driving 3 hours to Leech, burning up lots of car and boat gas, and a week-end to get the 5 Walleye you can legally have in you possession. More power to you,,, I would rather spend the 10-20 minutes
it takes to launch my boat and hang out here in town catching fish.

In the summer I am using the brightest braid I can find, or the white Nano-Fil. Something I can see before sun rise or after sunset with vinyl coated steel leaders from 3" to 18", but some of the Micro leaders are not vinyl coated, just steel. I catch well over 1000 pan fish, 300-600 Bass and 30 to 100 northern every year, why the Mono or Floro leaders? I here this BS about "its scares the fish", If the 2x4 or 6" chunk of plastic with 3 #2 or #3 treble hooks hanging off it doesn't scare these fish away, I don't see how a .016” diameter line is going to. It works fine for me. Ice fishing is a different story.
Chase the link and see a small sample of what I catch.
https://jemstone90.wixsite.com/bigmnfish/crappie

The color of live minnows seems to work best for me, then Chartreuse although I use it more than anything else, pearl white would be next

https://jemstone90.wixsite.com/bigmnfish/copy-of-largemouth-bass-1

Great Photos, the kayak fishing looks like a really fun way to pass an afternoon.

i am not sure what is meant by "To much fishing Equipment"? I don't spend big money on equipment except on braided line, which is expensive. When Gander Outdoors liquidated I stopped in at least 5 times and dropped $10-$20 on stuff I probably will used or need, but at 70-90 percent off I was getting hundreds of dollars worth of tackle/fishing stuff for next to nothing. The same thing happened when Kmart went under. I ran into a Salvation Army that was liquidating a sporting goods store in northern Minnesota and had racks of brand new rods and reels for next to nothing. Living on Lake Minnetonka I am surrounded by rich people that have garage sales and sell off stuff I could never afford to buy new. Just buy the basics to start and pick up the rest when you see GREAT deals. The photos I attached are not 5% of what I have, what I need is a couple of floats, some hooks and some weights, I fish mostly with fatheads and sucker minnows!
https://jemstone90.wixsite.com/bigmnfish/hard-tackle