basschaser,
best advice i can give is this.....
fish your favorite lake similar to the way you would fish it in the early spring.
for me, early spring fishing consists of 3 baits ( at first ).
a suspending jerk bait, a jig and plastic, and a carolina rig.
find yourself a good point with decent depth at the end of it. if you can find one that a river channel cruises by or with a good flat on one end of it, you will be just fine. also, if you can find a point that has a bay near by, you are all set.
start out in deeper water and drag a jig with a trailer across the point. if you have no luck, try a carolina rig with at least a two foot leader. if you still arent catching fish, start throwing a suspending jerkbait over the point and work it slow, let it sit for as long as you can stand until you have to give it another jerk.
if you are finding the fish are not holding on the deeper points, move into the shallow bay area and start throwing a shallow crankbait or a jerkbait or spinner bait.
the hardest thing in fall is determining where the fish are holding on a particular day. once you find the fish it becomes much easier to catch them if you allow the fish to tell you what they want.
as a guide line tho, i usually start fishing main lake points leading into a nice calm bay that is out of the wind and current. im no bass pro, but in the past two years i feel i have come a long way in terms of bass fishing in the fall. i have learned to listen to my gut instinct and forget what i think i know about bass fishing.
hope this helps. remember in the fall, the fish are primed to feed, if you can find the bait, you will find the fish. if the water is warm enough to hold bait, you will find the bass, i dont care if its 2 feet of water and the air temp is 40 f.
but i usually start deeper unless the weather tells me otherwise.
but for real. i catch 80% of my fall fish on suspending jerkbaits.
madman himself