November Bass Fishing

Hot Rod Baits Tubes, hard to beat in the fall.

Every year in October, and November my mind and body are at a tug-a-war.  On one end of the rope I have the need to keep fishing from the boat for bass.  The other end of the rope is preparing the ice fishing gear, and watching the 20-day forecast to see how many nights are below freezing.  You might say that no matter what day of the year it is, I want to be catching fish.
The days are numbered for fishing in the boat, so I try to make every one count as much as I can.  This past weekend, November 9th, my friend Ken Lunsford and I made plans for a quick one-day trip to Pool 9 of the Mississippi River.  Ken, might love fishing as much as I do, I know he loves bass fishing as much as I do, which is pretty rare.  He is always up for a trip to chase bass at any time of the year.  The weather was predicting wind, up to 30mph, but temperatures right around 50 degrees.  We just "had" to go one last time.

Ken Lunsford showing a nice largemouth
 that hit a crankbait

We left Friday evening for an over night stay in Prairie Du Chein.  We were up early on Saturday morning to head north to Pool 9.  The weather was spot on, except the wind was suppose to blow from the west, which set up perfect for the areas I wanted to cover.  However, most of the day the wind swirled from every direction.  We made the best of it, and covered as much water as we could.  We ended up fishing a lot of the time in the Desoto area of Wisconsin, but spent awhile near Lansing also.  We caught between 40 and 50 bass, all largemouth.  Three baits did the damage on the day, a medium diving crankbait (bright colors), a small jig and chunk, and a Hot Rod Baits Green Pumpkin/Blue tube.  Most bass were in the 13-17 inch range, topping out at about 2.75#.
A great little trip, most likely the last time in the boat for me... but I always have ICE FISHING to look forward to.