As far as your location i cant help you there.
As far as bass baits i would recommend fishing weightless plastics. Because you are fishing small water as you said the need for serch baits becomes far and few. We all know that a spinnerbait or crankbait will catch bass and when you have the hammer down covering water there is nothing better, but like i said on small water you can just slow down and get those bass to hit all day every day. Baits like a senco riged wacky or a FAT ika with that slow hypnotizing fall will catch you the most and biggest fish in that area.
Everyone has their go too baits and there are a million choices, you just have to find what works for you. Also because there are so many ways to fish people waste a lot of money buying everything when they always go back to their favs..........
Weightless plastics are also my go to bait for bass. Everything catches on a good day but if the day is slow, I always turn to senco.