For a spinnerbait there is many ways to retrieve it. you can slow roll it and get it down deeper or you can fish it the way i like to do it and use it in the upper 5 ft. of the water column with a pretty fast retrieve. My 3 most important tips for fishing a spinnerbait is: 1. don't be afraid to get it in the trees or whatever you may be fishing. get it as close to cover as possible. 2. most of my bites come when i have a change in my retrieve. for example, keep a steady retrieve then slow it down and speed it up again to make the blades jump. 3. use a trailer hook. my trailer hook has caught me so many fish that the regular hook would have missed.
For a jig, most the time i fish a football head in rocks and i just pull it slowly with the rod tip a few feet at a time across the bottom keeping contact with the bottom the entire time. when you feel it get stuck on a rock or log, lift up the rod tip very lightly to pull the jig over whatever it is. most of the time if you try to jerk it over fast you will get it snagged. but thats all there is to it is keeping the jig on the bottom, maybe the occasional hop will also help cause the bass will bite it on the fall. I always use rage tail craw as trailers on my jigs but i suppose that is a personal preference. A jig bite can be hard to detect a lot of the times, so watch for your line to jump or start going to the side, reel up the slack and slam into a big bucket mouth.
...back to spinnerbait tips...in muddy/stained water i like to use bigger blades with more vibration such as a (Colorado) blade. In clear water I like to use a double willow-leaf to keep it high in the water column.
