NJ Bass Lure Suggestions

[CroboNJ]

Hey everyone, I'm new to fishing altogether and was wondering about lure size. I recently picked up fishing late 2015 and have been trying to figure out what to throw to get a bite out here. Most places I've checked out online have suggested throwing 6-8 inch Senkos for bass and one Youtuber based in California throws lures as big as 10 inch swimbaits.

I bring all this up because bass are different in different places, so my question is what should I be throwing? I had some success on a 3 inch chartruese grub that I was throwing on a ball type jighead. Am I in the right ballpark? I'm still figuring out the whole presentation thing since I'm pretty sure I'm doing some other stuff wrong. I know this isn't the time of year for bass, but I want to be ready when the warm weather rolls back in.

I also have some hard baits, small rapalas but I'm not entirely sure how I should be fishing them. Do I burn them or slowly reel them in? I have a couple floating types, a couple depth to types and a sinking lipless crankbait.

The bright side is I'm never afraid of falling back on panfish since I know they're always willing to bite