ESPN

As water temperatures cool in the fall and bass begin moving back into the creeks, many things are occurring. Not only are fish suspending and moving, their attentions are clearly focused on the large schools of baitfish they're pursuing.

While these fall movements don't happen at precisely the same time, it's simply a case of determining when the water starts cooling down from the high temperatures of summer.

Once this wholesale movement of bass is underway, finding fish is just one obstacle for a bass fisherman. Refinding them again and again is precisely what separates those anglers who have one great day from those who have a lot of them.

With so many lures to choose from, lipless crankbaits sometimes get overlooked in the autumn shuffle. But if keeping on top of moving bass is the goal — which it most assuredly will be — then the water coverage capability of these lures should make them one of your first choices.

Perhaps the easiest way to get started with lipless crankbaits is to simply find a promising creek, put the trolling motor down and go. In large creeks, it's probably a better strategy to fish one section, crank up, run a mile or so and fish several different areas. The likely zones could be far off the bank or over flats. But whatever the exact location, the object is to find a large concentration of bass.

Since autumn bass are so focused on shad or baitfish, finding the bait means finding the bass. This generally calls for following the edge of a creek channel or perhaps roaming out onto a flat — in essence, searching for any irregularity where forage and predator will pause.

Once found, some anglers may argue in favor of slowing down with slow moving baits or Carolina-style rigs to capitalize on a bass concentration. But even when bass are pinpointed and fishermen can get healthy in a hurry, the transient nature of this bite should never be ignored. Both bass and bait will move again, and a fisherman has to move with them.

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