November is one of the best months to fish. This is when you really start to see some fat fish. The water is cooling, but the feeding is picking up, making the fish put on weight.
A lot of people have exchanged their rod and reels for bows and arrows. This is music to my ears, the less people on the water the more fish for me!
When I think of November, I think one thing- Shad. Most people probably think of Turkey- can you imagine? If you can find the shad, you will find the bass. Often this will be in a major creek in a big reservoir in the back third of the creek, if it has not gotten too cold. If it has gotten really cold, like water in the 50’s, you will need to back off and fish deeper drops near the mouths of creeks.
So when I fish in November I want baits that imitate shad. The Culprit minnow on an A-rig is an excellent choice. Fish this on heavy Fluorocarbon or braid and fish around baitfish in more open water or around the deep ends of boat docks and bridges. It is deadly, although a little tiring to cast all day.
In addition to the A-rig, spinnerbaits and crankbaits do a great job imitating shad. What I typically do is fish fast with the crankbaits and spinnerbaits until I get in a creek with lots of shad and bass.
Once I pick off a few on the quicker moving stuff, then I start dissecting likely looking ambush spots and also I start re-fishing spots that I catch fish. My favorite bait for fishing in tight cover while imitating a shad is a 7″ Fat Max in black shad. A worm imitating a shad? Yes, the Fat Max has the thickness and right color to look like an injured shad falling through the water. The best thing about it is that once it gets to the bottom it maintains great action. If you watch the Fat Max when it reaches the bottom, the tail takes a few seconds to recoil back to its original shape. This drives bass crazy- it looks like a shad on its last leg that sinks to the bottom and makes one last effort to twitch its tail.
So what I do with this worm is go back to any cover around and pick it apart. I often find that I catch bigger fish once I slow down. It can be hard for me or anyone to slow down but it pays off with bigger fish.
So this fall, think outside the box when it comes to lure selection. Worms can imitate shad!