Bass Fishing in November
The cooling rivers prompt the smallmouth bass to head for the deeper sections of the rivers. They still need to feed so they select feeding stations that are protected from the heavy currents in the rivers. The back eddies are some of the most productive feeding stations now. These are located below the riffles on the side of the river with the slowest current. Basically they are big Lazy Susans.
There are many Creek Chub and Gray Ghost Minnows living in these areas. They are a good source of food for the bass. These can be fished either by floating down the main part of the river or by wading down the river close to the bank. Swimming a Murray’s Magnum Creek Chub size 4 or Murray’s Magnum Gray Ghost size 4 slowly along the stream bottom by stripping it 6 inches every 10 seconds will catch many of these bass.
Often I find that by using a sink tip III line with a Murray’s 6ft 2X Fluorocarbon Sinking Leader enables me to catch more bass than using a floating line. The bass holding in these back eddies seldom roam around much so I like to fan my casts over the entire back eddy. I’ll often devote an hour to fishing a back eddy which is 50 feet in diameter.
You might not catch as many bass when fishing in November, but you might catch your biggest bass.
Trout Fishing
The trout in the delayed harvest streams tend to move downstream as the season progresses. I find that using streamers such as the Shenandoah Silver Ghost Streamer and Shenandoah Skunk Streamer both in size 10 as searching minnow imitations helps me catch many of these trout. These match many of the minnows these trout feed upon.
A very effective technique is to wade slowly downstream and cast across stream. After the streamer sinks deeply, swim it slowly across the stream bottom by stripping it 6 inches every 5 seconds. Wade very slowly and place each successive cast only about 2 feet further downstream. This method enables you to show your streamers to every trout in the stream with a realistic minnow-swimming action.
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