can someone break down how water temp affect's bass activity and at what temps they will be doing what... also if you could just give a short layout as to: how to aprroach fishing them at each givin time...

  this would be much appreciated

Have you tried a search on this subject since your required answer would take several pages to properly answer?

From my experience with northern largemouths (in CO and NY) in small waters:

At 45, it's very slow a crawl. Simply takes patience.

At 50 options increase, and fish are much more willing, or at least able to meet you part way.

At 55 I start picking up the pace. The bass can chase well by then. I may speed test small fish when I start. A thermometer is faster though. Topwaters are a possibility.

Above 60 bass can really chase and at 65 or better you physically cannot reel too fast if a bass really wants that bait. Not that that's the best tact, but if the fish are willing you can sure cover water and catch a lot of bass.

Realize, though, that these are surface temperatures. They don't represent the temps where the bass are likely holding. Until early summer, surface temp readings are only skin deep inches early on, then penetrating deeper as the season wears on. For example, in early spring, water 3 feet deep will likely be 10 degrees colder than the surface. When bass are beginning to spawn, in ~65F surface temps, water at 3 feet is likely 5 degrees colder.

So, if the bass are holding just below where one can see them (the common security zone for bass) they are likely in colder water than I'm measuring. The bass are responding to lures well at actual temperatures colder than my list shows. WRB might chime in here, he had said he'd taken actual body temperatures of bass at one time.

So, my temps above represent surface temps and serve as a general guide I use as I fish. But, more important than the actual temperatures on an hour by hour basis are temperature trends whether the temperatures are rising or falling and how quickly. To see how I use this in practice find my post, Two Interesting Days on Boulder Colorado Pond in the Western Reports section of this site (It's back a page or so now, or search it.).

A really important part of all this in terms of presentation is what I call chase speed: What are the bass willing to commit to? They seem to judge whether they can catch a bait or not whether they are willing to expend the energy to capture it. I believe this is more important to larger bass and is, in part, why large bass can be harder to catch.

Thus, how much horizontal (forward) movement matters this is the crux of speed control. When the water is cold, bass generally are less willing to commit to the chase.

This doesn't mean bass CANNOT chase at cold temps they can, but from what I read it's more energetically costly. Whether this is truly physiological or in relation to availability of prey in winter, I dunno. There certainly ARE circumstances where bass will chase in cold water. Shad die-offs in the winter are a classic example. Actively feeding bass, with prey in front of them, and their target screen set, are more willing to chase at any temperature. As are bass in high competition with their cohorts. But, I'd venture to say that in most circumstances, you're better off slowing down in colder water -way down in very cold water.

Your job is to ferret this stuff out. Start with an appropriate lure type for the metabolic requirements of the day (or better, the hour) at hand, and divine and refine the appropriate presentation. This is where versatility shines, and beats the "GoTo" nearly every time.

There's a reply further down the above mentioned thread ("Two Fascinating Days...") where I describe some of this presentation stuff in more detail.

Is this helpful, or confusing?

Good post by Paul Roberts but you can also look in the fishing articles-bass biology behavior section up above..

Good luck and hope this helps!