Cool Weather and Great Fishing Await Along the Coast
Boy oh boy! What a great time of year to be alive and living on the coast. Fishing can be as good as it gets on several fronts. From freshwater basins to the brackish marsh and rivers, the fishing can be spectacular this month. If it stays mild and water temperatures don’t plunge, even the offshore bite can be off the chart! Let’s look at a few places to try for this month’s coastal outlook.
Inshore
Anglers without boats look forward to November nights, as the fishing can be great this month. The Cedar Point Pier can be excellent as long as the waters of Mobile Bay and Mississippi Sound stay somewhat clear. Cedar point can be hot for white trout, black drum, speckled trout, and redfish. On the very end of the pier, anglers target redfish and the huge black drum working the deeper areas of the pier. Fresh dead shrimp, as well as cracked crab, will entice both species of drum. In the shallow areas of the pier, you can find the specks and whites on live shrimp or soft plastic grubs fished around the lights. You can even scare up the occasional flounder while fishing this pier in November.
“Specks tend to be in the deeper water, while the redfish like to roam the banks, so adjust your depth to the species you really want to target.”
Staying towards the south end of the bay, you can connect with nice schools of white trout around the gas rigs in November. You’ll need a boat for this mission, but the best fishing remains at night. Fresh cut squid is an excellent choice to stir up the big ‘yellow mouth’ white trout when fished on the bottom. You will also run into some of the biggest ground mullet of the year while targeting the whites. Downsize your hooks to be more successful with the ground mullet.
Up in the Mobile Delta, the annual fall push of speckled trout and redfish should be in full swing. The competition among fish should make almost any bait thrown in the rivers likely to be hit. Using the falling tide and northerly breeze to push your boat along with the natural flow makes for a deadly combination in November. Use soft plastics fished on a ¼ or 3/8 oz. jighead. The top baits are normally minnow type grubs, such as the Cocahoe Minnow, Fin-S Grub, and Saltwater Assassin Grubs. Best colors are white, chartreuse, smoke and root beer.
It won’t take much to find the action this month. Simply cruise up the rivers and look for the boats clustered up. Use common courtesy and go above the drifting boats and get in line for your drift. Do not cut anyone off! It is highly frowned upon and won’t make you any new friends.
Specks tend to be in the deeper water, while the redfish like to roam the banks, so adjust your depth to the species you really want to target.
“Big black drum will be available on Cedar Point Pier this month.” This photo was taken by Mike Thompson.
Offshore
Waters should still be warm offshore, especially early in the month. This will offer lots of opportunities to land some nice king mackerel by using hardtails for bait around most oil company structure. The competition should be minimal, as lots of sportsmen will have their minds on taking a nice buck from a shooting house. That just leaves more water and kings for the hardcore anglers.
“On the way in you can always make a drift or troll over Dixey Bar off Ft. Morgan to connect with bruiser bull reds.”
The waters should be pretty clear and trolling weed lines with Stretch 30’s or Ilander Lures, rigged with ballyhoo can produce nice dolphin and Wahoo. Early in the month, you might even spot tripletail along the weed lines, so keep a small rig ready to cast to the tripletail.
On the way in you can always make a drift or troll over Dixey Bar off Ft. Morgan to connect with bruiser bull reds. The reds aren’t too choosy and will hit cut mullet, live croakers, and Drone Spoons. This has been a trip saver for many a captain who had bad luck offshore. Most of all, they put up a great fight!
The weather can be fickle in November, so stay aware of the offshore forecast as you plan your trips. Make sure all your communication (radio, cell phones) is at the ready because the lack of boats out makes you vulnerable this month.
Freshwater
Bass fishing on the lower Mobile Delta should also be on fire in November. Loads of white shrimp should be along the edges of the river near grass or wood structure. These shrimp will put the bass on a feeding frenzy. Live shrimp under a cork is the obvious choice here for bait. However, if the bait shops don’t have shrimp you can fall back on very life-like artificial shrimp. You can fish the artificial shrimp under a cork just like a live shrimp or you can cast the bait by itself to a grass edge and pull it off the edge and let it flutter down. If there are two or more bass in the vicinity that sees it, the shrimp will be gobbled up very quickly. Best places to try this action will be Raft River, Spanish River, Blakely River and Tensaw River.
Bass will also be clustered around structure in Delta Creeks. Dropping a frisky live shrimp around this structure, you can be sure that your cork will soon plunge, pulled downward by a hungry bass. To encourage quick action, you should downsize your hook so that the shrimp can swim freely.
In addition to bass around structure in Delta Creeks, you will also run into some fine bull bream. You can tempt the bream with a pinch of shrimp. If you can catch your own seed shrimp, you can really get the party started.
Conclusion
Besides the spring, you will be hard-pressed to find a better time to be on the water on the Alabama Coast. Multiple species are active and cooperating. Add into that the exceptional fishing weather of November and you have a combination that is truly hard to beat!
See you on the water!
Important Information
Saltwater Assassin Grubs
Live shrimp on the Causeway
Scott’s Landing 251-626-5323
Shirley’s Bait and Tackle 251-438-6010
