If you seriously want to chase some bass - crawlers under a bobber wouldn't be my first choice. THey'll work - but lures will actually get you better results. Your trout rod with 8lb line will be fine. Early in the year with cold water - a bait (which I will be using as a generic term for real bait or lures) that is moving but moving slowly will be the best. Think barely moving but moving - because bass fishing is largely about covering water to find them and then getting your bait into the strike zone and keeping it there. Soft plastics will work very well - senkos, roboworms, or berkley power worms will all work. I prefer dark or natural colors most of the time at hagg, my best producer being dark red with metal flake for a little sparkle and attraction. Other colors I like are black, "pumpkinseed" (which is a brownish green color or greenish brown), and dark purple. This goes for pretty much all the soft plastic worms/lizards style lures. 3-4 inch baits are more consistent producers than the big stuff, and those are perfectly matched to the rod you'll be fishing them on. You can rig these in a variety of ways, but my most consistent producers are weightless "wacky" and drop shot. A wacky rig uses a short shanked hook, and the bait is pierced near the center and sits cross wise on the hook. It might look funny to you at first, but trust me it works very well. When you are retrieving the lure, the worm bends in half and has an action the fish love.
A drop shot rig is one where the hook is tied above the weight - the weight is tied or clipped on the end of the line, and the hook usually attached between 1 & 3 feet above the hook. Short shank, wide gap hooks are best for this type of rid. Use a palomar knot to attach it, leaving a long tag end that you'll attach the weight to. Before putting the weight on though, run the line back through the eye of the hook from the hook bend side to the back side first - this will make the hook stand 90 degrees out from the line and this gives you the best action, and best hook ups. For drop shot you can either use a wacky (which I usually do) rigging for the bait, or hook it through the nose.
Both methods are best when you cast out and slowly drag or hop the bait, keeping it close to the bottom. Less is more usually, when it comes to action. Short twitches, hops, or slowly dragging with no other action.
Another good bass targetting method is jigs - I usually use a tube style bait on my jigs. You push the jig head up into the body and poke the hook eye at the side near the head of the bait. Simple and easy. Cast it out, let it hit bottom, and hop it or drag it back. Vary the retrieve so you see what they want.
For hardware, small crankbaits (if using a spinning rod, I'd go lipless variety) in the 2" range work great. These are as simple to fish as it gets in that you cast them out and crank them back, like a spinner.
Also, inline spinners like rooster tails, panther martens, mepps work great and you'll never know what hits it - trout love 'em, bass love 'em, and I've landed some big panfish from hagg on a spinner too. 1/8th ounce is a good starting size and then go up or down from there depending on what the fish seem to want.
Don't think you need to run out and drop a lot of $$$ if you don't have these baits already - just pick a couple and try them out. I bet you've already got spinners in your tackle box, and those would be a great way to start.
Bass are a predator and most of the time their bites are as much out of predatory instinct as to actually being hungry. That's one reason I'm saying lures will work better than a static bait like a worm fished on the bottom or under a float at rest. You're covering water to find the fish, but you're also inducing reactionary bites because the fish either take the opportunity to eat, or they're reacting to a fleeing bait or to something invading their personal space. The other benefit to lures over say, nightcrawlers, is that you unhook the fish and you're back in action. Nightcrawlers have a tendency to come undone during a fight, so you need to rebait your hook a lot more often. Soft plastics will usually last for a number of fish before flying off or needing to be replaced because they're getting worn out. Hard baits never need rebaiting - only replacing if you loose one or you want to try something else.
When we get closer to March or April and the water gets warm the fish move in shallow - the thing I love about Hagg is that in the early season the water is really high, and usually very clear by that time of year. The fish move up into the grass both in preparation to spawn, and because they like the warmer water and they hide in the grass and ambush their prey. You can sometimes sight fish for them, successfully.
Look for drop offs, weed lines, little depressions in the bank, and of course, timber sticking into the water. Get your lures along the edges of these spots and you'll find fish. Even something as simple as the difference between shaded water and water in full sunlight can attract bass. Even better if you have two kinds of transitions in the same spod, like shade/sunlight and a drop off, weed line, rock pile or timber.
Good luck!