There are two ways to do these patterns. One is more difficult for me as you have to keep up with it daily. The other pattern is to go where the fish live year round.
Pattern One - The fact is, sometimes bass relate more strongly to the movement of bait fish schools than anything else in the lake. They follow schools of shad and other bait all over the lake. When this happens, factors such as cover, bottom contours, even depth, become not as important. These fish are focused on their food source, and nothing else. Using this pattern for me can be extremely difficult to locate and catch. Difficult, but not impossible; because the guides use it a lot and stay on the fish daily.
Pattern Two - Is to find where they live and that is what I do. As said above it is about location close to deep water with feeding grounds just adjacent to their comfort zone. I do not feel that there are many, many spots on a lake that you can locate such an area. I can always find 3 or 4 and that is all it takes to stay on fish all day long.
Donald, your "Pattern One" reminds me of something Bill Wilcox said after fishing Wheeler Branch for a Honey Hole segment. He said that bass on clear water lakes are often more
sight-oriented hunters. He may have mentioned they tend to school up a bit more, too, but it was two or so years ago and I can't recall the detail on the second comment.
Anyway, he really had a nice day out there fishing accordingly, knowing how to target these bass. The lake, itself, is very clear and it can be a great fishery at times, usually in the pre-/spawn/post-spawn periods . . . then it gets really difficult for a lot of people the rest of the year.
I have been out there and seen groups of bass chasing shad where the bass were boiling out of the water in an area 100 feet wide or more in diameter. There must have been hundreds of them. Others have seen this out there, commented on it, that they have seen this in the late afternoon.
I think this may be your Pattern One, where a very large percentage of the bass in a lake are on the prowl; anglers not knowing how to capitalize on it end up catching some of the other few bass left that are genetically predisposed to living in a more defined area.
Brad