I’ve always heard downsizing is the ticket in low, clear water or on liplocked fish, but wasn’t sure if this closely resembled any of their forage enough to be effective.

 

 

Last year i was fishing on of my local lakes and the bass just werent biting so i switched over to fishing for panfish using a 1/64oz jig with a panfish tube soft plastic or a crappie magnet. Caught alot of bass fishing these a few feet under a small float skipped under docks, biggest one was around 3lbs.

Get some small jigheads and light bobbers and give those a try, and if you dont catch any bass you might end up getting some good eating sized bluegills or crappie.

 

Given the choices in your multiple choice question.   I’m going with c) something a little meatier.

You never know until you try.  I'm sure there are days when that'll do better than a TRD.  And other days where you'd be better off with a TRD.

 

Like MediumMouthBass, I too have often been able stave off the skunk with crappie jigs while fishing for bass.  You won't likely catch a giant doing that, and the hooks are small enough to be a problem sometimes, but some days that all that seems to work for me.  

 

And I wouldn't worry too much about trying to closely match their forage.  Bass are opportunistic predators, and they'll often eat things because it looks like nothing they've ever seen before.  I've got a ton of lures that look nothing like their natural forage, but they eat them anyway if you put the right action on them.  

The local river at my daily access points is low and clear. I always fish smaller lighter lures (UL spinning). 
 

My go to is Texas rigged 3 inch Yamasenkos (slims).  I don’t catch large fish but I rarely get skunked. And admittedly I’m not a very good fisherman. 

I caught a striper with a hellgramite the other day 

Don’t tell warm water fly fishermen that stonefly imitations won’t work. I’ve done very well on plastic hellgrammites on light jig heads. 

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I caught a striper with a hellgramite the other day 

Yeah like crawfish everything eats them