Well here's been my experience. If the fish are around shallow cover, in addition to the above mentioned baits, spinnerbaits or minnowbaits can be good year round. However, as mentioned, if the prey isn't there they won't be either. Assuming you are fishing a natural lake, the best offshore structure for me has been rocky structure of some kind. Points, submerged islands, etc. Without a map or electronics some of the locations can be hard to find. If there are navigational markers of some kind in the middle of the lake explore around those. I've had better luck with soft plastics for smallies, and would probably go with carolina rigged tubes or craws if I had to find structure the hard way.