Fishing Trip

My plan is to put in at the Pearl River in Columbia MS(home location) off hwy 98. Drift/motor the 1st part in 1.5 days(if the water is high enough to run the motor wot some), hit the beach and roll to a small uninhabited island. its roughly 400 yards from shore.(maybe a hour boat ride from the mouth of the river)

I'm going to be camping on the island for about 3 days. 'semi' Minimalist style, cook and eat what we catch/find, no cellular devices. It'll be easier to catch baby hard tails or croaker for bait than keeping shrimp in my cooler.

I was thinking a 3000 size reel on a 6'6'' ML w/8lb mono , and a 5500 bait feeder with some 15lb mono.. My guys said the gator trout are everywhere and will readily swallow large croaker.. however, as I've mentioned before, I prefer a Red over all others..

This is ALL weather dependent, I may end up taking a bigger boat, it's just hard to get down the pearl at times.
I don't eat catfish so my 1st day I'll be eating crappie hopefully. I want to keep it fun, i'll be recording the entire adventure with some go pros. I have a small coal grill and a sterno griddle, but I will be cooking over sourced wood and stuff also..

Thoughts on prep items?

I have a tent, flares, bucket, med kits, water, gas, oil, matches, a few sharp knives, small cooking equip, tinfoil, bleach/santizer gel, dial soap, glock 23, I will have a portable HAM, and my fishing gear...

The boat... will likely be my 14' jon boat but could go to a bigger boat(bigger = heavier and hard to get in some places of the pearl)