Good luck and lets us know how you do!

You could also use a worm blower and a night crawler from the bottom side up. All you would need to find then is the blower which is basically a hypo needle to put air in the worm. Bait seems to always catch more fish with less effort. And the cheapest route would be a worm blower (or a marshmallow) and a stealth presentation. I am no Large Mouth Expert so you will have to fine tune these techs so they function. If the water is pretty colored you can also get some worm bedding that will make your night crawlers glow!!

I believe they call this a carolina rig where the weight would be by the swivel and you adjust the legth of the leader. Texas rig would have the weight by the worm. Yall would know this stuff being a southern boy. My buddy Ringo would know too, he use to fish the circuit. Will have to remember to ask him for recommendations.

Ok, the subject is finnicky bass. I'm guessing this water is fairly clear. I'm also guessing that these fish have probably seen every lure in the book. I hate both conditions, personally.

Ok, several remedies, but I noticed no live minnows are allowed Ok, well use dead ones then. Straight minnow, no weight. Run the hook through the lips of the minnow. Cast out, and allow to slowly sink all the way to the bottom. Then, slowly twitch the minnow, stop, and repeat. You can vary the twitches and you can vary the depth. Also, use much lighter line on lockjawed bass. I'd stick to around 6lb test. and would probably use a spinning setup to get the slower retrieve ratio.

On lockjawed bass, put the plugs up, well at least the bigger ones. A small crawdad pattern, floating/diving plug will work. Make sure it's fairly small!

Smaller line and smaller lures are essential. 4" curly tail worms, 4" grub worms, very small crawdads, etc. Very small, standing, weedless jig head.

Look for ANY cover. Even if you see a twig poking up out of the water; toss at it.

Small topwater plugs will work as well. The walk-the-dog is a very effective retrieve for using on a Zara Puppy.

The regs. read just like the law. If the regs. say No Live Fish, then that's exactly what it means, and that's exactly how it's viewed in a court of law. There is no gray area in law, and in the case that there is, that's what we have the supreme court for

Lizards are a great thing to use, but since this sounds like clear water, use the smaller lizards.

I don't know when they bed out here in WA, but they start on one pond back on the farm around Valentine's Day, and continue til the end of March for the other dozen lakes and ponds.