The early fall bite is extremely strong right now, the only "challenge," if you want to call it that, is finding bigger fish. You can catch them on leadcore, spinners, jigs, jig raps, slip bobbers, almost anything right now, but I've seemed to have the most success with crankbaits, and I think it's just a function of covering water faster and running into more pods of fish. Most that you catch will be between 13-16 inches if you're looking in 18-22 feet of water.
I've had some success trolling deeper on the edges of rock reefs in 28-32 with leadcore and finding some bigger fish in the 18-20 inch range, but I've found some small ones there too, and the bite is less consistent certainly. Water temps throughout the lake have been dropping from about 58 beginning of week to close to 54 now, and with the forecasted SNOW for tonight - yes, you read that right - I'm sure we'll be hitting lake turnover any day now and then seeing 40-degree water temps and, hopefully, a shallower, stronger fall bite with the more mature fish showing themselves.
As far as live bait, leeches still work well if you can find them, but leave the crawlers alone. Jigs and minnows are pretty solid. You can find a lot of fish at the various bridges, but they're typically quite small right now. If you want to try to find better fish, I suggest you venture out to some deeper structure until turnover hits...sunken islands, rock reefs, flooded roads, etc.
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