I'd consider longline trolling ... as a search tool, if not a primary method. Give them a mixed bag of tubes, curly tails, Roadrunners, etc.

Whenever I read anything about "how to approach fishing a new lake" ... they always tend to say two things, over & over again, regardless of who's being quoted in the article :

1) Find areas of the lake that are similar to lakes you know well, and fish them the same way you would your well known waters. (sort of the "a Crappie is a Crappie, regardless of where it lives" attitude)

2) Don't try & fish the "whole" lake. Section it off & work over each section thoroughly ... given the most likely area of the lake that the fish will be in, according to season &/or current conditions.

I would only add one other idea, since it's worked well for me on unfamiliar waters .... what I call the "when in Rome" method. That is ... fish where & like the locals do !! Talk to people on the water, at the ramps, at the fish cleaning stations & marinas, at the bait shops, etc. I usually ask them "what's the best you've ever done at this lake ?" Once I get the conversation going in that mode, I can congratulate them on their catch ... stroking their ego a bit ... and that usually leads to the finer details of "how/when/where/on what/how deep/etc". Not always, but often enough. It's what got me started shooting docks, back when I was mostly casting tube jigs or tightlining minnows. Had I not done so ... I'd have missed out on years of catching some really nice fish.

... cp