Novembers of the Past

October 31, 2016 By Ned Kehde

Since 2011, we have published 58,804 words about how, when, and where Midwest finesse anglers fish in November.

Many of these words focus on the perspectives, methods, insights, and logs of Rick Allen of Dallas, Texas; Terry Bivins of Lebo, Kansas; Burton Bosley of Sutton, West Virginia; Norman Brown of Lewisville, Texas; Terry Claudell of Overland Park, Kansas; Steve Desch of Topeka, Kansas; Brent Frazee of Parkville, Missouri; Bob Gum of Kansas City, Kansas; Clyde Holscher of Topeka; Casey Kidder of Topeka; Ralph Manns of Rockwall, Texas; Travis Myers of Paw Paw, West Virginia; Mike Poe of Siler City, North Carolina; Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas; Chris Rohr of Overland Park; John Thomas of Denton, Texas; Brian Waldman of Coatesville, Indiana; Brian Watson of Papillion, Nebraska; and Dave Weroha of Kansas City, Kansas. Some of the words were extracted from my logs that I began compiling in 2003.

Most of the words focus on the pursuit of largemouth bass, and that is because the shallow-water smallmouth bass fishing peters out in November across northeastern Kansas, and the only exception to that occurs at one of the power-plant reservoirs. Before 2011we used to spend a lot of time simultaneously fishing for largemouth bass and temperate bass in northeastern Kansas and central Missouri during November, but the white bass population has declined so dramatically during the past several years that we rarely pursue them. But at several northeastern Kansas and northwestern Missouri reservoirs, we do spend some time doing what we call bass fishing for trout. When we pursued trout, we primarily employed a 2 1/2-inch Z-Man's ZinkerZ affixed to a 1/16-ounce Gopher Tackle Mushroom Head jig. We used a variety of colors of the ZinkerZ: bubble gum, green pumpkin, Junebug, PB&J, and pearl. The Gopher jig was usually painted red.

In our column entitled "A Month-by-Month Guide to Midwest Finesse for Bass," we noted that the surface temperature at our northeastern Kansas reservoirs on November 1 is 56 degrees. It drops to about 50 degrees during the middle of the month. It is around 46 degrees at month's end. We will be confounded by spells of freezing rain, sleet, and snow, which can make conditions insurmountable even for the most ardent largemouth bass anglers.

On average, northeastern Kansas has about an inch of precipitation in November. The average temperature is 43 degrees, but it can be as cold as nine degrees and as warm as 84 degrees.

The average low temperature on Nov. 1 in north-central Texas is 48 degrees, and the average high temperature is 67 degrees. On Nov. 15, the average low temperature is 43 degrees, and the average high temperature is 63 degrees. By Nov. 30, the average low temperature is 38 degrees and the average high temperature is 59 degrees.

In northeastern West Virginia, the average low temperature on Nov. 1 is 38 degrees, and the average high temperature is 60 degrees. The average low temperature is 34 degrees on Nov. 15, and the average high temperature is 55 degrees. On Nov. 30, the average low temperature is 30 degrees, and the average high temperature is 48 degrees.

At the reservoirs of north-central Texas, Steve Reideler has recorded the surface temperatures in early November hovering around 65 to 68 degrees. By the middle of November, the surface temperatures are in the low 60s and high 50s, and they are in the low 50s at the end of the month.

Burton Bosley notes that the surface temperature at one of the West Virginia reservoirs that he fished was 48 degrees on Nov. 30, 2014. The water temperatures in the rivers that Travis Myers of Paw Paw, West Virginia, fishes are in the low 50s in early November, in the mid-40s around Nov. 15, and in the low 40s on Nov. 30.

By the end of the month, some Midwest finesse anglers in Kansas begin spending a lot of their outings at the power-plant reservoirs.

Below are the links to the 58,840 words that we have written about how, when, and where Midwest finesse anglers catch and do not catch black bass during November in Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia.

(1) http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/a-month-by-month-guide-to-midwest-finesse-for-bass/.