Cooling water pulls baitfish into the creek arms, and predators follow. That is the entire fall pattern in one sentence. And yet October humbles more good anglers than August ever does.
The mistake
Summer teaches you to fish slowly and precisely, to pick apart a piece of cover, to wait a fish out. Those habits are correct in July and actively wrong in October.
In fall, the fish are moving and so is their food. Precision on a single laydown is worthless when the school passed it twenty minutes ago. Cover water. Fish faster than feels comfortable. Follow the bait, not the structure.
Where the bait goes
Bait moves from the main lake into the backs of creeks, following the coolest, most oxygenated water it can find. Start in the middle of a creek arm and work toward the back. When you find shad, stop. You have found the fish.
The window closes
Once the water drops below about 50 degrees, this ends. The fish go deep, group up, and the fall pattern is over for the year. There are perhaps six weeks in it. Spend them covering water.