When approaching new waters, what order of lures to you move through to locate fish? start with topwaters and work the column down? ( topwaters, cranks, jerk, jigs/worms?)

All baits have a place and time and topwaters are not the best bait to "explore" new waters, if you are going to explore new waters if the conditions are right begin by using "fish hunters" like spinnerbaits and lipless cranks, both sink so you can explore different depths, both can be fished from arthritic snail pace all the way up to warp speed so you can explore the speed, and then when you have located concentrations of fish you can change for something else. That´s my recommendation. 

X2. Top water would not be my choice to look for fish. Depending on the body of water, time of year, etc, I'm either going to look for them with FF, or if they are shallow in cover, use a spinnerbait, crank, or swimjig depending on conditions. Then depending on what the fish tell me, adjust from there.

I try to put as many of the pieces of the puzzle together as possible (weather conditions, water conditions, time of year, sonar readings, etc.) to put myself where I think the bass SHOULD be, and then fish using techniques I think SHOULD work.  I rarely focus on search baiting.

 

It's a feast or famine strategy though.

Your decision should be made based on what seasonal period the bass are in at the time you are on the water. And, of course, the water conditions, i.e.: stained, temperature, forage, etc.. I would start off with a search lure that you have confidence in, one which you have had success in the past, such as a lipless crank, spinnerbait, swimjig, etc.. There is no one definitive answer to your questions. Experience will guide you.