Just wondering what to use to increase my chances of catching SOMETHING on those rough days. Crappie, Bass, Sandies, and the like.

I use to fish a lot with Bomber's model-A, 1/4-3/8 oz., crank bait in silver shad (white w/pink hue on sides) which they discontinued, but I use to catch black bass, white bass, and crappie often on it. I'll never forget the first time I fished Lake Altus, OK. and I caught six different species (perch, crappie, black bass, white bass, walleye, channel cat) on that crank bait. I still use them today when my other crank baits don't work.

sassy shad on a road runner head

I remember fishing with hand grenades over in Vietnam so I think some dynamite might work.

+1. I like to use a small curly tail grub (chartreuse) on a road runner type of jig head.

Beetle spins and roadrunners with a grub trailer
1/4oz rattle traps
those small arkie crappie cranks
4 inch finesse worms wacky
Slider and ned rigs

From a boat:
spoons, wingdigs, little george, drop shot 4 inch roboworm

+1

Live bait being the obvious, usually small cranks and crappie jigs.

Nightcrawlers by far, but for artificials I have always had mulit-species luck on smal crappie tubes, roadrunners, and kastmaster spoons. My first fish wasnt a bluegill like most, it was a 3 pound drum caught up at Moss lake in gainseville haha! And i caught it on a kastmaster spoon.

A minner fished under a cork will catch about anything. For lures, I'd say tie on a pair of crappie jigs-one dark, and one light color.

A minner fished under a cork will catch about anything

+ 10 on the minner under a cork, I always have one on. even when Im bass fishing. I stick a rod in a holder and just let it driff along as I fish, never know what you will get

Artificial shad plastics and worms asst colors.

Little Georges

Depends on how you fish? Live bait is hard to beat. If you're casting artificial lures a beetle spin or small lipless rattlebaits are good choices.