Depends on, water clarity, depth, what time of year, weather, & time of day.
If I could pick any time, its definitely night, around 10:00pm, early July before the water heats up too much. Fishing clear water with just enough breeze for a slight ripple on the water. Then its large black jitterbugs on baitcasting equipment, 6' med/heavy action rod, 12lb. Trilene.
Or the same set up with a 3/8oz black spinner bait with a huge colorado blade and a trailer hook tipped with a black Berkley Power Grub and roll it a few feet below the surface.
If the fish are sluggish, I'll crawl a dark colored 10" Berkley Power Worm, texas rigged with a 1/8oz screw in nose weight and a small glass rattle inserted mid way.
But if I were to head out on the water right this minute at 6:28 pm, it'd be a 6'6" light action rod with spinning gear and 6 lb. test and a Rebel Pop R.
For live bait its big native shiners in the shallow ponds, or small perch with the finns trimmed and weighted down with spilt shot in the clear water ponds after chumming with gras shrimp for smallies in 25 or more feet of clear water. Man I miss fishing the Cape ponds.