Choice of plastics should include lizards, crawfish and floating worms. Green pumpkin and June bug are deadly colors in this area. When exploring rocky sections, throw a crawfish, and on other types of cover, you'll want to throw lizards or worms.

Conditions may dictate downsizing a bit, going with a 6 1/2-foot spinning rod, lighter line, shorter leader and smaller weights, hooks and baits. These conditions would include when the fish are getting tight-lipped from clear weather and water conditions or heavy fishing pressure.

LATE-MONTH TRANSITION PATTERN
Normal high temperatures at the first of September are about 85 degrees with lows around 62. By the end of the month, those average temperatures have dropped by 10 degrees. With nights reaching into the low 50s, the lakes and the bass are changing and anglers need to change, too, to be successful.

Shifting daylight and temperatures get shad on the move, leaving deep water and heading up the creeks. "Follow the shad and find the bass" is a simple rule.

Bass actively follow these schools and feed heavily all the way through the fall, which gives anglers plenty of options: Topwater baits, spinnerbaits, Texas rigs and crankbaits are all productive during the fall transition.

Regardless of why the shad move to shallower water, if they are near the surface, it is an excellent time to use a topwater bait in shad colors.

"I love a topwater bite. I'll throw a buzzbait or Pop R early and late in the day and all day if it is cloudy. These baits really imitate shad on the surface," said Kennon Brown of Roxboro, who runs Hawg Hunter Guide Service and fishes extensively on Falls Lake.

Fall is Brown's favorite time of the year. "The fish are going to feed heavily before their metabolism slows down. Big fish are going to move up and fatten up.

"At this time of the year, shad move into coves on the lake, and the bass will follow them. They may be at the mouth, one-third of the way up or in the back of the coves. Once you find them, you will catch a lot of fish," Brown said. Start on creeks like Horse, Upper Barton, Big Lick and New Light.

If there's no topwater bite, anglers will have to drop beneath the surface with a spinnerbait.

"I'll run a spinnerbait just under the surface and if that does not work, I'll drop it down 3 or 4 feet," Brown said.

With the fall pattern emerging and bass following baitfish up the creeks, those spinnerbaits are also effective in shallow water with good cover,

"I like to work a spinnerbait through stumpfields in the back of coves. Start at the back of the cover and work out. Just use a slow roll of the bait running just fast enough to feel the vibration of the blades," Brown said.

He uses a Hildebrandt Okeechobee spinnerbait with a gold head, white skirt and No. 4 and No. 3 willow-leaf blades. In stained water, he uses a spinnerbait with a single No. 5 Colorado or Indiana blade to add vibration.

Don't overlook probing the cover with a jig. Designed by Brown for Hildebrandt, the JigZilla uses a Mustad Needle Point hook, has two rattles and lifelike eyes, with a silicone Trailer-Tail built in.

"Use a black jig with a blue skirt in clear water, a blue jig with a white skirt in stained water and an all-white jig in muddy water. I tip them with a Zoom Super Chunk trailer that I split the tails on for more action," Brown said.

If the fish are very finicky, Brown suggests using a modified Texas rig. Peg the weight about 3 inches above the hook. Adding two facet-cut red beads between the weight and the hook adds a clacking sound as the worm is worked. A chartreuse ribbon-tail worm is a good choice.

While summertime patterns dominate the month of September, anglers should use the bright sun and hot temperatures to find those bass crowded around deep cover. With cooler nights signaling the fall transition, baitfish and bass begin their move toward shallow water.

Following bass from their deep summertime haunts to staging areas on creek channels to the backs of coves in shallow water as the leaves turn colors gives anglers a variety of opportunities and keeps them on bass.