I'm on the lake(Travis) almost every day running service calls and I would like to duck into coves and stop around docks and throw a little for panfish. It would be easy enough to throw a rod in the boat to have with me but I don't want to deal with live bait just for intermittent fishing. Can someone tell me what I would need in the way of an assortment of baits to do this. I'm assuming that panfish will hit artificial baits. I'm using a Shimano Sahara on a crappie pole, just a light rig, and I just want to do a little C&R from time to time.

A lot of guys here jig or use drop shot. I do pretty well with small crank baits. The original rapala is my favorite

I do really well on the small Panther Martin spinners and small crankbaits.

Roadrunners.

Get yourself some 1/32nd and 1/16th Luck E Strike jigheads (they have larger hooks for lighter jigheads), some 2" swimming grubs and 2" triple tip grubs, Rapala floating minnows and Rebel CrickHoppers. That'll get ya bit. Also, grab some rattlin' pears or your favorite jig n bobber float and some Gulp! Hellgrammites. You can rig them below the float on jigheads, but I find that I get bit better when I rig them on a plain hook with a split shot just up the line.

Catching Sunfish on artificial baits is the only way to go. Plus #1 on the above. You may also try small spinner baits such as Little Georges, and Rooster Tails. I personally love the Curly Tail Grubs by Berkley.

I'm with Jagg!
Nothing easier than a little triple tail grub on a jig head.

Does a Crappie rod work OK? Some of these baits look really light for casting, but I haven't done a lot of fishing with artificials, so I'm just askin'.

What are some good colors to start out with? Just trying to accumulate as much info as I can.

An ultra light combo along with a box of night crawlers has always gotten me some fantastic results. When I do use artificial it is usually the Berkley Trout Worms, Gulp Alive Products,or the curly tail grubs. I have never had any problems with casting artificial bait using the 1/16 ounce jig heads.

chartruese and fire tiger

It depends on the specs of the crappie rod. Most crappie rods that will cast crappie jigs well will cast UL and micro jigs well. Some will do the job, but may not do it to your liking. Never know till you try.

I like my jigheads unpainted unless the water is chocolate. With my soft plastics, I like combos of yellows, browns, greens and chartreuse along with electric blue with fire tail, blue shad, black shad, TN shad, electric chicken, black neon, black/blue, watermelon and pumpkin. With the Raps, Gold, silver, bleeding copper flash, yellow perch and the one with chartreuse on the top and a silver bottom. For the CrickHoppers, brown, yellow and green. Black/olive is great for Gulp!

4 lb test on a an ultralite ...
1/32 to 1/16 oz jigs ...
some tiny 1.25 inch Crazy angler Slab Bandits ....
a few natural colors
some pink
some charteuse
etc etc ...
this one is called black shad ....

Get the smallest cranks they have @ Walmart