I recently moved from South Louisiana to Temple Texas. I just brought my boat here and got on Lake Belton for a few hours. Never fishing a reservoir, I struggled to get a bite (as in none). I had the boat in about 15' and throwing toward the bank. I would really appreciate guidance on how to fish these waters. It would be great to be able to catch my first smallmouth as well. Thank You!
Glenn Martin

You will need to learn to forget the bank a good bit of the year. You can be a bank-beater, but it will not turn out well except around the spawn.

Donald Harper (a member here) has been writing an excellent series on fishing large bodies of water (often with little consideration for the bank). Search for those (using "Article" and his name in the search function in the TFF), read them, study them. Learn to use your electronics proficiently (sonar AND GPS with mapping). Learn from these the right places to look. If they are barren of fish, don't flog that water - look for a better spot.
Those are the basics that will begin to make the effort other than random chance.

Stillhouse and Whitney are also good lakes to hit