# November Fishing - Updated 11-23 with new pics



## russ010 (Nov 9, 2008)

Instead of creating a new topic every time I go fishing - I'm just going to start doing 1 post per month. So far this month I've only fished Lathem, so the scenery is pretty much the same, but I'll be fishing different spots and trying different techniques.. I'm starting to keep a fishing log for the time of year and what's working and what's not. I put the water temp/clarity, depth, all weather conditions and times the fish were caught, where and with what bait. I get pretty intensive with the details, but I've done this on my lake back in SC and I seldom come out of there with atleast one beast weighing 6+ lbs each trip... so now on to Lathem.... it's deepest spot is about 100', and most of the areas I fish are almost vertical drops where the depth goes from 4-6' to 20+ in one hop of a worm.. anyways, on to the pictures.

Weather today was around 60 with winds 10-20.. same as yesterday. Yesterday I only managed 4, but it was good because they were mostly caught on a Rapala DT-6 crankbait (lost it today though, and the dog retriever didn't bring it back). Today I fished new areas and used a shakey head worm with a Zoom finesse watermelon seed worm... I also used some TruTungsten weighted finesse worms... I rigged those on a 3/0 hook and they are right, it drops about 1' per second. Only thing bad about them is they are only good for about 2 fish - very soft lures and tear when fish look at it. I don't know if I'll buy them again. I think Ill use the zoom finesse and stick the worm rattles in them for the added weight when I throw in timber and need weightless.












This is where I was fishing during the morning. The first picture is where the above 2 bass were caught, just before going in. The next picture is taken from the back looking back into the main water.






(a fish from inside the timber on the weighted worm - TruTungsten Stinger Worm)










Here's the best fish of the day... right at 2 lbs







Here's a second set of timbers I decided to fish... these are really holding fish, but the only thing that I could get to work besides the shakey head was the weightless finesse worm... shakey head kept getting hung up on every tree that I couldn't see... granted I was doing some pretty impressive casts considering how the wind was blowing.






I caught the next 3 fish on the first 3 casts inside this stuff... they seemed to be right under my boat... 













And some of the scenery....






26 geese....















Here's the top of the tree he was in...





One scary thing about these timbers... I had the top fall out of one when the back of my boat hit it.. I still troll slowly, but I keep my oar close to test the big trees before getting too close. I'd hate to have one of those limbs make me a new livewell


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## SMDave (Nov 9, 2008)

Beautiful pics!


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## Waterwings (Nov 9, 2008)

Nice bass and great pics! Thanks for posting them! 8)


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## Captain Ahab (Nov 10, 2008)

Nice job

Thanks for the report and great photos


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## shamoo (Nov 10, 2008)

Good report, nice looking fish and beautiful pictures =D>


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## russ010 (Nov 10, 2008)

Thanks for the comments...

I got a question, and I never noticed it until now. Are all of the fish I caught Largemouth? I can't tell the difference between them and spotted bass. There were never any spots in South Carolina where I fished so I can't tell just by looking at them.

Some of the fish I caught had DARK lines going their sides, as in the first 2 pics... then later on, there really weren't any lines going down the side.

I looked online to tell the difference, but most pictures I saw that people were holding and calling spots - well, I would have called them LM


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## Bubba (Nov 10, 2008)

The main way I usually decide is if they have a "toothpatch" on their tongue. Sometimes LM will have these too i've heard, but between the color and one having a toothpatch or not, you should be able to determine one from the other. Another way is that on a "spot", the jawline doesn't extend past the eye(with the mouth closed), although they way you are holding these(with the mouth open) its hard to really tell. Usually from what i've caught, a "spot" normally has a little bit brighter green color than a LM as well. Either way though, You still caught fish! More than I can say for this past weekend.... #-o :lol:


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## Jim (Nov 10, 2008)

Great report!

I have heard about them tru-tungsten weighted worms having the issue you described. 

Those waters look like like perfect jig & pig waters.


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## russ010 (Nov 10, 2008)

Jim said:


> Those waters look like like perfect jig & pig waters.



They may be... I haven't used them yet though. They been hitting worms pretty good so i never changed. I switch mainly between worms and cranks... I'm still not confident with jigs yet. But in that timber it's 10-20' deep. In some of the other timber spots the depth is closer to 30'.

I'm kinda scared to go too deep in the really tall stuff after I got out by the skin of my teeth when the top fell out of one when the back of my boat hit it. What's bad is I wasn't really fishing when it hit... I was adding more "liquid" ( :mrgreen: ) to the drought hit waters and I was standing on the bow. Needless to say I had to wash the front of the boat AND my boots when I got home.


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## Zum (Nov 10, 2008)

LOL.did ya get any on your hands
Looks like a great spot,nice fish.


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## Jim (Nov 10, 2008)

:LOL2:

Hate when that happens.


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## russ010 (Nov 10, 2008)

Zum said:


> LOL.did ya get any on your hands
> Looks like a great spot,nice fish.



If there had been a fire, it would have been extinguised down to the last ember... I don't drink anything except for Mountain Dew when I'm fishing, and when I break the seal the first time.... well, I'll just say atleast I didn't fall in the water


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## Greg (Nov 10, 2008)

Nice catchin! =D> Those all look like spots to me. Note the defined "spots" below the dorsal. 

Here's a good guide on distinguishing between the two species. https://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/bkbass_diagrams.phtml


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## paulk (Nov 10, 2008)

Nice----Wish I was there


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## Waterwings (Nov 10, 2008)

Yep, look like Spots to me also. They put up a decent fight


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## russ010 (Nov 11, 2008)

Waterwings said:


> Yep, look like Spots to me also. They put up a decent fight



They do... but those are about 12" long and they don't stand too much with a MH rod and 15# fluoro... they run to me on top of the water! 

If the ones that have that dominate streak down the side are spots, they did put up most fight. There were 2 that didn't have spots. They were pretty much just green in color


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## Salmon_Slayer_2008_Lund (Nov 11, 2008)

Nice bass!


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## bcritch (Nov 11, 2008)

They're some nice healthy looking Bass. Nice pics too.....

Is that a Red Headed Woodpecker in the one picture?


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## bassboy1 (Nov 12, 2008)

Those first two fish are almost definitely spots. Last 3 are almost definitely largemouth. The 3rd one is likely a spot, since you caught it the same place you did the other two spots. They don't coexist very well, and in fact, the spots are so bad, they will even eat largemouth eggs. Spots don't exactly help walleye either, so are an annoying fish up north too. They do fight a bit harder than largemouth, but also seem to be harder to catch. Generally, if you can find them, largemouth will be easier to catch. Not to mention, they grow bigger....


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## mr.fish (Nov 12, 2008)

Looks like an awesome day. 

Those bass have some crazy color pattern. Very Nice


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## russ010 (Nov 17, 2008)

sorry I haven't responded sooner - I've been playing war since last thursday... that is a red-headed woodpecker... He pecked that tree for nearly 3 hours. He would leave, come back.. leave, come back... some of that wildlife is what keeps me in the water so long. Gets kinda boring without something else to look at or listen to sometimes.


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## russ010 (Nov 23, 2008)

Made it out the Lathem Reservoir Saturday and Sunday... It was 17 degrees when I woke up at 6am Sat morning, and then when I hit the water it was 19 and the wind was blowing. I decided to hit the coves first and try to get out of the wind because I had already lost feeling in my finger tips. I decided to stop and fish the outside of a few points first, but as it turns out, water, wind and cold temps don't go together - atleast not in my case. Every cast I had to deal with this....










the line had ice forming, my rod eyelets were frozen shut and I'm pretty sure I heard my reel say "you du-mas, what were you thinking bringing me out here to freeze my spools off??" anyways, after 10am the sun finally decided to show the cold who was boss and it warmed up to 34 degrees... atleast no more ice on my line. I pretty much decided to go around the lake and look at it on sonar - can anybody tell me what this is i'm looking at?? i'm pretty sure it's suspended fish, but either way, I couldn't get a bit with anything I tried to jig at them.





1130 - I'm tired - and hungry - and just happened to have a chicken and dumplings MRE left over from this past weekend when I had drill. It was actually really good, (tasted much better than it looks) and the best part was the heater - I finally had feeling back in my fingers!









I got a bite at 9am and nothing else until I caught this one around 12. I stayed until 445pm and had to be out the gate by 5 or they lock you in and charge you $50 to unlock the gate.





Sunday - not quite as cold, but I decided to hit the lake a little later just to get an hour or two of extra sleep. I was on the water at 12 and off by 430. I managed this one on a shakey head/Net Bait finesse worm in summer craw color (looks like watermelon seed to me, but I LIKE IT!!) I found the fish sitting on drop offs of points in 30' of water.





As always, I try to give a few wildlife pics and different things I see and fish habitat... enjoy!

I think this is the community club house - atleast I hope it's not a personal residence. There is one other huge house, but I didn't get a pic. 





I don't know what kind of birds/ducks these are - but they would be there one minute, then dive down and come up 30 yards away - of course I was chasing them and I actually snuk up on them once...

At first there were 3...





Then 2...





Then 1... who came up while the other 2 went down






Can you find the bird in this pic???


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## Jim (Nov 23, 2008)

Great report!....minus the MRE. :LOL2: 

Not sure whats on the sonar :-k


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## bassboy1 (Nov 23, 2008)

I can't really tell what that is on the sonar. Almost looks like loosely packed suspended fish, but not quite enough arch to them. Of course, I don't know how you have your sensitivity set either. I have started to see more schooling fish on Allatoona, now that it is getting cold. When you see them, especially a school of stripers, you will know it. Almost makes you sit there and gawk at the sonar instead of dropping a spoon down there.


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## russ010 (Nov 23, 2008)

i know what you mean about seeing fish... I know I'm right over a creek channel, but I had my sensitivity down.. I zoomed in and could see better arches, I was just trying to figure out what all that speckled clutter was. The reason you can't see the arch is because I stopped the graph while I was still moving at a pretty fast clip and I don't have the chart speed set to it's fastest setting

bassboy - I have this feeling we are going to freeze our assets off out there friday (I just saw a 50% chance of rain with 50 as the high, but it's not supposed to be windy)... I might end up getting me a pair of gloves, I can't take the weather conditions like I used to be able to.


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## DocWatson (Nov 23, 2008)

Bird ?????


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## russ010 (Nov 23, 2008)

thats the one... you should have seen me trying to find it with my camera... I had to zoom in from way off because I just saw it fly into that general area, but never knew where it was until I got home and then it was clear as day


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## DocWatson (Nov 24, 2008)

The red head was the giveaway. :wink: But I can see how it would be tough to locate through a camera lense.


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## Nickk (Nov 24, 2008)

cool!

I like the video, "I gotta go because I got a bite." sweet!


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## Zum (Nov 24, 2008)

Nice pictures and report.
Just guessing at the birds but maybe comerants?


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## russ010 (Nov 24, 2008)

Nickk said:


> cool!
> 
> I like the video, "I gotta go because I got a bite." sweet!




That bite tured out to be a fish, and I've got video of it too, but it was with my phone, not the camera like the first one was. Here is a pic of what was caught...


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## FishinsMyLife (Nov 25, 2008)

Nice catchin, and I believe those birds are some kind of grebes.


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