How do you deal with cruising bass?

I spent most of the morning yesterday fishing a small lake.
Didn't catch much of anything, but I saw ALOT of bass from tiny to huge
cruising along the bank. While they looked at almost everything I
threw at them, I got very few bites. The fish were very skiddish in
the shallow water and often would spook and dart for deeper water only
to return a moment later. But they were never sitting still. Each
fish seemed to be patrolling a specific territory which from what I
could tell was usually a stretch of water 20 to 60 feet along the bank.

What exactly are these fish doing, and how do you guys catch them
when they act like this?

-Zimmy