Just found out that a lake near me has these. What baits/tactics should I use to target them? How do they fight compared to a largemouth or smallmouth?

They are great fighters.  Zara spook is my favorite bait for them.  Lipless cranks, jigging spoons, crank baits, buck tail jigs are all baits I have used on them.

4 hours ago, Jig Man said:

They are great fighters.  Zara spook is my favorite bait for them.  Lipless cranks, jigging spoons, crank baits, buck tail jigs are all baits I have used on them.

ok txh for the info

They put green and brown fish to shame, especially the bigger ones. Lots of baits work well. In the cold water period, I like A-rigs best. Shad body/swimbait on a jighead alone works well, too. 

1 hour ago, Team9nine said:

They put green and brown fish to shame, especially the bigger ones. Lots of baits work well. In the cold water period, I like A-rigs best. Shad body/swimbait on a jighead alone works well, too. 

Live bait is your best bet, but the A rig can be killer, too!

 

Anything silver or white is good. Most of them want to chase it so you probably can’t fish to fast

Anything that imitates a shad/baitfish can work. Walking topwaters, lipless baits, jerkbaits, swimbaits, spoons, and grubs are some of my favorites.

 

Set your drag, they'll pull like a truck if you get a hold of one bigger than 4 or 5 pounds and part your line before you know what happened.