chuck has some great info. When exploring new water if it's at dawn I always fish the eastern banks first as they tend to hold fish longer before the water temp rises from the sun. The active fish will generally be in the NW section of a lake as that water temps move up first. Of course all this is depends on if there is habitat. If the NW corner is a beach then there won't be any fish there. Another thing to watch for is points and cover. Sunken trees, vegetation, points in the lake are great area's to look. Anyplace the fish can ambush a prey.

When fishing I use my sonar to tell me the depth the fish are then I just change baits very often. Maybe 10-20 casts in an area I KNOW the fish are in. If you keep switching up you'll get it right sometime. Just remember there is ALWAYS fish biting someplace on the lake. Just gotta find them.

For colors I stick to natural colors, red, white, chartreuse, blue, and black. Fishing at night or towards dusk you want to stick with a blue or black as the fish see the shadow of it. If you do fish a popular body of water find out what most people throw and throw something totally different. If fish see the same thing over and over give them another option.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head from my experiences. There are hundreds of thousands of ways to catch fish. Just go out there and trial and error. Take good notes so you can figure out patterns and it will help your fishing in the future.