November and December is often some of the best bass fishing of the year.
Although January through March is often considered by many to be the best time of the year to catch large numbers of spawning bass, often the largest females move in early, beginning in October and November to spawn.
Last year, spawning beds began to show up as early as October in Lake Okeechobee and December in Lake Istokpoga.
As the air temperatures begin to cool, particularly over-night, water temperatures drop as well and bass begin feeding veraciously in preparation for the spawn. Often, bass will be their heaviest during the fall season.
I had the opportunity to fish with my old partner, Nick DeSanta a few weeks ago on Lake Istokpoga in the Lake Placid Team Trail Tournament. Water temperatures were still high, pushing 85-88 degrees in many of the areas we chose to fish.
Twenty teams participated in the event and only 3 teams weighed in their 5 fish limit. Coming in first place was the team of McDuffie and McDuffie with 5 bass weighing 16.57 pounds, earning themselves a check for $570.00. Steve Dubois and his grandson Nick Dubois came in second with $15.85 pounds, worth $340.00, followed by Ray Martinez and Remo Beaver with 14.84 pounds and a check for $225.00.
The big bass check went to the team of McDuffie and McDuffie with a 10.97 pound wall hanger earning them an additional $135.00.
Nick and I had both had an opportunity to fish Lake Istokpoga prior to the tournament and each of us had found a few fish in different parts of the lake so we were pretty confident as we awaited the start of the tournament.
Our first spot proved to be the most productive. Idling up to a small reed island, Nick caught a nice 4-5 lb bass in the open water on a jig and plastic crawfish. Flipping the reeds, I caught 3 keeper bass on a Medlock jig over the next hour. With four bass in the live well in the first hour, we felt confident our pre-fishing strategy paid off.
Moving to our second and third location, I caught another small bass on spinner bait, and Nick missed a bigger fish on a plastic worm, but as the sun came up, the action slowed down.
Between Nick and me, we probably had another 4-5 strikes by quitting time on a variety of lures, but neither of us was able to bring another bass into the boat. I had a huge strike on a Zara Spook, knocking the lure 3 feet out of the water, but we couldn’t get the bass to strike a second time.
By quitting time, we re-measured a couple of the “keeper” fish I’d caught early in the day only to find one just short of the 12” minimum size limit. We released the fish, ending the day with only four bass for the weigh-in.
Two of the bass that I’d caught had struck so fast and swallowed the jig and although I had tried not to injure the fish, they were floating in the live well when we retrieved them for the weigh-in. We ended up with around 11 1⁄2 pounds, receiving two six ounce penalties for the two dead fish, placing us in 9th place overall.
All-in-all, we had a good day on the water, and it was good to finally start catching some fish. Lake Istokpoga has been tough fishing all summer and the fish now seem to be moving into the different vegetation and feeding.
This is a great time of the year to be fishing Lake Istokpoga. The water is high due to all the rain and although it remains muddy and dark in many areas, finding the cleaner water is often the key to finding the bass.
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