November fishing

[thedude]

secret lake didn't disappoint today. if there's 1 that doesn't bother me at all - its catching 4lbers on cranks. If there were two things that didn't bother me at all it would be catching 4lbers on cranks and 4lbers on jigs.


nothing bothered me at all today.

[djkimmel]

C'mon now... I'm stuck at work the next 5 days and all I caught for 4 hours Saturday was... well, nothing. I did scare a number of bedded down deer and get to watch turkeys wander the hills making all sorts of noise. Almost got a 4 point buck on the way home too. Missed him by that much...

[dashaver63]

Question; what water temps gets the bass going on their fall feed? I had 50 degree temps down here Sunday and I haven't even seen a bass for 3 weeks. Cranks, jigs, spinnerbaits nothing. I'm wandering if the water is still to warm to get them turned on good for that last big feed before winter. I thought the shorter days would have got them going but I was wrong there.

[thedude]

it was 45-46 on sat-sun. 
try fishing in the mid-day through afternoon on sunny days... that gets 'em fired up usually. they're hungry, you just gotta put it in their face.

[Waterfoul]

Yeah, Sunday was fun on the "secret lake."  How about 13" perch on a jig?  That goes in my "weird stuff" file for sure!!

I have pictures... just haven't downloaded them yet.

Fished again yesterday on a small lake north of GR.  My 5 biggest went 4.3, 4.2, 4.1, 3.3, and 3.2 lbs. on the X-Tools scale  (that's a 19 lb sack!!).  All fish were caught on a texas rigged craw.  Overall we caught 11 fish in about 4 hours, of which 10 were over 15".  Strange thing though... my friend and I were throwing the SAME bait in the same places and he didn't catch a thing.  Turns out (sorry I didn't notice Marc) he was tying directly to the braid and I was using a florocarbon leader.  11-0 proves a pretty good point I think.

Fish the edge of the breaks, dragging your bait from shallow to deep.  Or parallel the break... varying the distance from the break with each cast till you figure out where they are sitting on that break.

The last week has been awsome!!  Even caught some whitefish Sunday night off the pier!

[thedude]

yeah - so i caught the perch on a nemesis jig on sunday and a 14" rainbow trout (stocked) on an RC 1.5 sat..... go figure.

[BryanP]

Dashaver, those temps sound about right.  They should be well into the fall feed.  Each lake is different though.  Some lakes are definitely better fall lakes than others.

[Waterfoul]

Water yesterday was a balmy, let's go swimming 46 degrees.  

Fished Reeds Lake on Friday... temp was 47 degrees.  Caught 3 fish in 2 hours.  At 50 degrees earlier in the month we actually caught LESS fish (at least I did).

Each time I started out with a fast moving bait... if they bit it after what I figured was enough effort on my part... I kept throwing it.  If they didn't hit the moving bait I went directly to a sloooow presentation with jigs, drop shots, and t-rigs.  Simply tossing out the jig and t-rig and then dragging it back down the break proved most productive. No hops no pops.  Most strikes came after dragging and bumping the bait over something on the bottom.  Most bites were THUMPS!  Not many subtle bites for me lately no matter what I am throwing.  They are EATING!!

[Waterfoul]

Hey Mike, if Marc can't make it, I might be able to get away for some fishing.      Then I'd owe you TWO trips  lol

Jeff, if the weather allows I'll be going somewhere on Monday next week.  Lets wait to see what the weatherman says later in the week.  The lake I fished yesterday isn't far from my house.

[Firefighter Jeff]

Hey Mike,  Sounds like a deal.  You still have my cell number??  I still have yours.  Sat and Sun look good.  Not sure about Monday.

[fasttrack]

Yup, I'll admit it Mike, you smoked me on Monday. A good lesson though about how the littlest details CAN make all the difference. Probably didn't help either that I hadn't been on the water in two months - but thats no excuse for the butt-whoopin I took. (Yes, I still had a blast though!) Let's keep tweaking stuff like that so next year we finish first rather than 4th overall in the club!
Oh yeah, and everyone's invited to Mike's for popcorn tonight - fresh from the cub scout fundraiser! (thanks for supporting my son Mike!)

[Waterfoul]

Actually, if you want popcorn stop by the store.  Free handfull with every $25 purchase!   

[Waterfoul]

Hey Mike,  Sounds like a deal.  You still have my cell number??  I still have yours.  Sat and Sun look good.  Not sure about Monday.

Hey Jeff... I lost my cell phone after you and I fished... along with all my contact info!!  Shoot me a PM with your cell number again.  Or give me a call if you still have mine. I am fishing tomorrow... probably on our "secret lake" even!!  Not sure if Martin (my young partner) can make it or not... but up there we could actually fish three from the boat no problem if he should happen to come along.  Tell you what... if you get this message today (saturday) call me at the store.  616-954-9822

[Firefighter Jeff]

Hey Mike,

    I didn't see this post of yours until today.  I actually was asked to work overtime on Sunday.  Therefore I wouldn't get off work til 7 am Monday.  I knew that would cut into the fishing time.  I decided to fish the local river for steelhead and got three of them.  I really appreciate your offer, especially to the "secret" lake.  lolol  I don't see a post.  How did you do???  Hopefully real well. 

[Waterfoul]

We managed 4 decent bass... lost a couple of TOADS... and some decent pike.

Shoot me a PM with your cell number.

Mike