5 Mississippi fishing hotspots for November

Mississippi has a history of mild weather in November, with a few cold days mixed in with normal fall temperatures — and even a few summer days. Seriously, it can be freezing one day, sweltering the next.

“That’s why it is important to have options, and one of them is that when it’s hot enough to break a sweat, I’d rather be in a boat chasing fish than in a deer stand swatting skeeters,” said Troy Thomas of Hattiesburg. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve changed plans away from hunting and to fishing just because of the weather forecast.”

With that in mind, here’s a list of five November fishing hot spots in Mississippi to try.

Coastal river bridges

The bridges, primarily the US 90 bridges at Bay St. Louis/Pass Christian and Biloxi/Ocean Springs, are perfect fish-holding structures for fish that are transitioning from summer to winter patterns. Redfish, sheepshead and puppy drum (black drum) all find the pilings perfect ambush points. Dead shrimp fished on the bottom at the bases of the pilings will produce.

Look for speckled trout schooling under baitfish where birds are diving It can happen almost anywhere along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. (Photo courtesy Cal Cossich)

“Two great things about it are that it only requires a short boat run, and that it really produces action,” said guide Kenny Shiyou of Shore Thing Fishing Charters in Bay St. Louis. “I love to take kids, because the action is hot, and because you never know what you’re going to reel in.”

Trout under the birds

Another November “sure thing” on the Gulf Coast is looking for birds diving to eat baitfish. Where the birds are feeding from above, schools of speckled trout will be feeding from below. This can happen anywhere in the Mississippi Sound, from the barrier islands to the beaches and well up into the bays created by coastal rivers.

“The bigger the birds, the bigger the fish, and that’s important with the minimum-size limit (15 inches) on specks,” said Harold Ladner of Pass Christian. “You will catch a lot of undersized specks under terns and other smaller birds, but pelicans and big gulls will usually be hitting bigger baitfish, and bigger fish will be, too.”

Carry a long-casting spinning outfit baited with tandem jigs — long casts are necessary instead of getting too close to the baitfish to prevent spooking them.

Grenada Lake crappie

Big surprise, eh? This is where you go to catch big crappie, and November, during the drawdown, is a perfect time to catch them. Check Phillip Gentry’s feature in this edition for tips on finding these fish, which will be transitioning with the falling water.

Lake Ferguson bass

This Mississippi River oxbow lake at Greenville — city front downtown is the best access — has long been famous for its fall bass action. Try to avoid rising river levels, but otherwise, take a deep-diving crankbait and Carolina rigs and get after the deep structure like old barges and dock structures. Don’t forget to look for schooling bass, too, exploding on shad migrating into the lake from the river.

Trace State Park Lake bass

This lake reopened to fishing late this past summer and has been producing monumental catches of bass ever since. It was on our hotspots list for October, too, and probably will be again in future months. According to Larry Pugh, fisheries director for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, an avid angler and a big fan of the lake, Trace State Park is going to be good for numbers for a while, with a lot of 3- to 5-pound fish available that have to be released. The current slot of 16 to 22 inches requires all fish in between must be immediately released.

About Bobby Cleveland 1343 Articles
Bobby Cleveland has covered sports in Mississippi for over 40 years. A native of Hattiesburg and graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, Cleveland lives on Ross Barnett Reservoir near Jackson with his wife Pam.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply