by Eric Crowley
Water temperature: 75 degrees, lake level: full pool +/-6 feet, clarity: 3 to 4 feet.
Finally, we are out of the long, drawn-out summer pattern and we are seeing fish on the move. Stripers are feeding on bait balls in 30 to 50 feet of water, and with the cooler water temps, it opens up a few different ways to target them. Early in the day, live bait, either fresh alewife, herring or later this month, trout fished on planer boards with long leaders as well as downlines in the 30 foot range are a good option.
As the day progresses, the fish and bait will move down and your baits should follow suit. Look for big schools of shad and herring balled up in the creeks and at the river mouth. You might not mark fish right away, but somewhere near that bait ball is a school of striped fish. Wurley Creek, Fisher Creek and the area around the beach are all good areas to check out this month.
As far as spots go, our best bite has been targeting deep fish near timber. The bigger fish seem to be in the 40 to 50 foot range and are targeting bait balls. Live shad, A-rigs and jigs have been good options as of late for the green fish. Camp Branch, Woodring and Ridgeway are always my go-to areas in November. As the temps drop and the water gets in lower 70s, look for the spots to move up and start targeting larger baitfish.
Walleye are on the move to bait-filled creeks. We had a great run on walleye a few days ago getting multiple fish multiple days in a row fishing live shad on the bottom near submerged timber near the main river channel. Look for more and more to show up this month.