November Full Moon

[catfishkiller]

Was out fishing on Saturday, NW Minnesota 15,000 acre lake (100ft+ max depth), hadn't been out since the heat of September - froze our toes off (30 in the morning, high of 39, did I mention wind)...

Either way, the lake has fully turned and the surface temp was at 46 all day. Walleyes were very hard to find and at nearly all depths and LARGE pike have shown up in their place (caught a personal best 35" slimer so trip wasn't a total loss). We searched 10 to 60ft of water finding 3 small eyes, 2 at 35-38ft and another at 20ft. Normally fishing minnows through this water depth range wouldv'e provided many a perch also, yet none were found. Basically, I attribute it to the several prior weeks ill weather (it's snowed three times). Where were our fish though?

This has led me to questioning my desire to keep the boat out through November's full moon as it falls very early this year. Normally full moon night trolling pays big for us in the fall (september and october). Turnover, however, has never hit as hard or as early for us in as many years as I've been fishing, and in the past usually signified when to consider storing the boat. However, with September's early moon and heat, and October's hidden moon and cold, my itch for fall hawgs missed its scratch.

My question is - who out there trolls plugs shallow during full moon and who sticks with it after turnover? After turn is the skinny water plug bite done? If so, do any of you wish to share an alternate night/evening pattern that can put fish in the well under these conditions?

thanks!
catfish

[Esoxchaser]

I do well at night all the way to ice up, the boat never gets winterized till winter is actually here and the launch frozen in. Thats usually Mid- late December in Lake St Clair.
Trolling/casting body baits especially Rapala floating 11's and J-11's on flats and around pierheads are my best pattern. Daytime I will do better with a minnow and a plain jig out deeper in adjacent areas

[westside]

I would DEFINITELY try shallow flats adjacent to deeper water. This time of year I often don waders in favor of the boat. Get a lot of fish in 2-6 FOW. Different lake, and I'm in WI, but I'd bet your fish might just have similar tendancies.

[hondo]

I think the water temps cooled off so fast in the last 2 weeks that it's thrown our typical night bite off a bit. I do a lot of night trolling and this has been a tough year so far, although the last time I was out was 2 nights ago and it was the best trip of the year so far ..... and was a slight warming trend after a few days of stable weather. I wouldn't give up on it just yet ........

Also, if you're full moon trolling I'd look shallower. We've been getting fish in 3-6 fow at night and seeing them stacked up like crazy around 20-30 fow on the first break. It doesn't seem like the baitfish moved shallow until recently, again I think that is due to how fast the water temp dropped due to the storms in the prior 2 weeks.