When dealing with inactive Largemouth bass your lure choices change.  In these cases you are almost always fishing near the bottom with lures like plastic worms or jig combinations. This artificial lures are designed to be retrieved at a very slow pace. If you speed up the retrieve of these lures their action is all wrong and they lose effectiveness.
 
For the beginner live bait is perhaps the best option.  It certainly will out fish any artificial bait and does not require a great deal of skill to use.  A skilled fisherman will of course catch more fish than an unskilled fisherman using live bait, but both can enjoy success.
 
There is a large variety of live bait choices.  Nitecrawlers, small fish, crayfish and frogs all work very well in this regard. The key to using each of these baits is to keep it as lively as possible while it is on your hook.
 
The key thing in fishing for bass or any other species however is to develop a style that works for you.  Fifty percent of fishing is standard stuff that all anglers must follow to earn success.  The balance of this sport is doing what you enjoy and doing what you feel comfortable with. 

You need to try different forms of fishing and practice the one that suits your needs best.  My idea of a perfect bass fishing trip is suing a spinnerbait in somewhat shallow water.  If the bass fishing is not working with this pattern I will often turn to a different species rather than use a style I am not as happy using.  I know how to fish in many different manner sand can use a plastic worm as well as almost anyone but choose not to often because I view bass fishing as more a hobby than a job.

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