You got a small boat you can fish from that has an anchor and a trolling motor? When I fished lakes and ponds near Wichita Falls, I used a small 10' aluminum boat and 15 # thrust Minn Kota - same when I fished L. Texoma. I stayed shallow and covered a lot of water casting to shore lines, parallel to them in in coves.
Started doing well with light ball head jigs and soft plastic lures. Even caught an 8lb alligator gar on one after the lure dropped off the edge of the ice.

Pretty much everything will strike soft plastics and at times crankbaits that I trolled such as Rapalas that caught this bass and sunfish:


Crappie Magnet grubs also do well for most species:


Curl tail grubs are the first lures I ever caught fish on:


8# test braid helps with lure action as well as a medium action rod and spinning reel with smooth drag and 4:1 or faster ratio.

Lure action and retrieve type is far more important than lure color but depth fished and location is more important than any of it.
Go out as often as you can and learn some waters. Sonar helps and go for as cheaply as 100 bucks. Saves a lot of time learning depths and structure areas (drop off, points, humps, etc,)

Keep asking for advice of the experienced anglers on this forum to expand your knowledge base along with your own experience which you can't help learn from. Catching fish is the final outcome of putting ideas to work and learning more and more with every outing.

If you are targeting bass at all you should read the book High Percentage Fishing by Josh Alwine.

Also don't over gun yourself when it comes to your rod and reel.
On clear water fish can be line shy, and lighter line will increase you chances tremendously.
Heavy line also can kill the action of your lure
An ultralight to medium action rod and reel with 8 to 10# test line is a good base setup to just catch fish.
Most fish you will catch just about on any body of water can be caught with that gear using small in-line spinners or spoons, soft bodied swim baits on a jig head, and small crank baits.
I've caught very large fish on a tiny flea fly jig and light line, so just remember to set your drag properly when fishing light line as you never know what might grab a hold of it.

disagree

IMO fish can't associate line diameter any more than they can treble hooks. Proven long ago, fish eyesight underwater is as superior to an eagle's above water but unlike an eagle always on the lookout for prey, fish aren't capable of knowing or associating lures to anything remotely resembling prey.

agree

Lure action is key when it comes to lure selection and presentation. Retrieve a lure the wrong way by imparting the wrong action or no action and fish won't react. Even the best lure designs can't provoke strikes unless lures move at the proper speed and cadence (or non-cadence) that match a fish's sensitivity level at the time and place fish are be suspended.

My experience has shown me that fish caught are mostly inactive fish. The only fish that are actively aggressive are school fish and pre-spawners where the distance between fish is short and sensitivity high due to a competitive irritability. The more irritable a fish is, the higher the chances of catching it and that's where lures come in by raising that level from zero to a level just high enough to make a fish attack.

Years ago when I owned a cat, I would attach a string to a fuzzy object and move it slightly across the floor. At first the cat would just stare at it. But after a few minutes, the animal would become very aggressive - moving fast to trap the toy over and over, but after four minutes or so the cat would lose interest. A fish's window of aggression is much shorter though and may strike a lure on another cast within less than a minute.

Anglers that concentrate on getting the color right, should be more concerned about getting everything else right about lure selection and presentation while keeping in mind that the simple reason angler's use lures is to make fish react.