UTERIn November, the striped bass run is at its peak in New Jersey and on Long Island's south shore, speckled trout and redfish are at their best from the Chesapeake to Texas, flounder are running out through the passes on the Gulf and South Atlantic, the Pacific is down to late salmon, the first winter steelhead and pre-closure lingcod, and the Great Lakes and inland waters belong to steelhead, night walleye, muskie and crappie. Fall is the season when cooling water, departing bait and passing fronts concentrate fish in predictable places on every coast.
This guide goes region by region using Fish Scouter's November calendars, the same ones that drive the app's forecast, so you can see what's biting near you this month and where it's headed next.
November at a glance
| Region | Headline fish this month |
|---|---|
| New England & Maine | Tautog, the last stripers, haddock and pollock, late bluefin |
| New York & New Jersey | The Montauk blitz, the heart of the NJ striper run, tautog |
| Delmarva & Chesapeake | Stripers in the surf and the bay, the best speck fishing of the year |
| Carolinas & Georgia | Drum and blues after the northeasters, albies through Thanksgiving, trout in the creeks |
| Florida | Flounder runs on both coasts, trout on the flats, sheepshead start, fall bonefish |
| Northern Gulf & Texas | Trout and reds everywhere, the flounder run to the passes |
| Pacific & Alaska | Late kings, chums, first winter steelhead, lingcod and rockfish |
| Hawaii | Mahi on the current lines, big ulua |
| Great Lakes | Fall steelhead, browns, whitefish, night walleye, muskie |
| Big freshwater | Muskie, crappie, smallmouth, stripers, brown trout spawn |
New England and the Gulf of Maine
The stripers have mostly gone. The last of them leave the Rhode Island beaches in November, and the fishing turns to the rocks: big tautog on the deeper structure and the breakwaters, with green crabs. Winter cod trips begin out of Rhode Island. In the Gulf of Maine, party boats run to the ledges for haddock and pollock, and the hardy chase the last bluefin tuna.
New York and New Jersey: the striper peak
This is the heart of the run. Off Montauk, stripers and bluefish blitz under the birds at the Point and along the south shore beaches, and big blackfish come off the Sound rock piles and the Montauk boulders on green crabs. In New Jersey, November is the peak: bunker schools off Monmouth and Ocean counties with big stripers under them, surfcasters on every jetty at dawn, and tog on the ocean wrecks with white-legger crabs. By December the run slides south to Cape May. Our striped bass migration guide follows the run stop by stop.
Delmarva and the Chesapeake
The striper run reaches the Delaware and Maryland beaches: bunker chunks and big plugs off the Delaware beaches and Assateague, and tog on the inlet rocks and the ocean wrecks. In the Chesapeake, November is the best speckled trout fishing of the year (suspending baits and soft plastics in the Piankatank, the Lynnhaven and the Elizabeth), while stripers fatten on menhaden along the channel edges and tog bite on the Bridge-Tunnel.
The Carolinas and Georgia
On the Outer Banks, fish behind each northeaster: the last bull red drum and fall bluefish in the surf, and speckled trout in the canals from Manns Harbor to Hatteras. See our Outer Banks fishing season guide for the full year. Around Wilmington and the Crystal Coast, false albacore keep blitzing through Thanksgiving as the bait floods out of the sounds, trout peak in the creeks on MirrOlures and soft plastics, and kings hold off the shoals.
In South Carolina, trout move into the deep creeks (slow plastics in the creek bends), the redfish start to school, and wahoo are offshore. Georgia calls November its best inshore month: artificials over shell on the falling tide as the shrimp leave the creeks, with trout, reds, sheepshead and black drum all in play.
Florida
Both coasts have a flounder run through the inlets and passes on the outgoing tide: Sebastian and Fort Pierce, Ponce and Canaveral, and the peak at St. Augustine, the St. Johns and Nassau Sound on the First Coast, plus the Panhandle passes. Florida has a fall flounder closure, so check FWC before you keep one. Trout are thick on the grass everywhere as the water drops through the 70s and into the 60s, pompano come back to the Atlantic surf, and sheepshead start showing on the pilings.
On the Gulf side, Tampa Bay trout are thick on the grass, reds are on the bars, and snook fish the sun-facing mangroves before the winter harvest closure (check the current FWC rules). In the Everglades, the first fronts drain the backcountry and the dry-season sight fishing begins. In the Keys and Biscayne, the big fall tides bring the best oceanside bonefish of the year, sailfish season starts, and kings and cobia move onto the wrecks as the water cools.
The northern Gulf and Texas
Louisiana calls November its best month: trout and reds everywhere, every drain on a falling north-wind tide, slicks over the reefs and birds from Hopedale to Cocodrie. In Mississippi and Alabama, trout fill the Pascagoula and the Delta while flounder head out (Alabama has a fall flounder closure; check ADCNR).
In Texas, the flounder run stacks fish at the Galveston jetties, Sabine Pass, Brazos Santiago and the Mansfield cut. TPWD notes that adult flounder leave the bays in fall to spawn in the Gulf, and Texas has closed flounder harvest during the run in recent years, so it's often catch-and-release; check TPWD. Reds stack at the marsh drains on the north-wind tides and school the Laguna flats after each front. Our Texas Gulf coast guide has the whole year.
The Pacific coast and Alaska
- Southern California: fall rockfish and lingcod on the island rock piles before the winter groundfish closure, and surfperch back in the troughs as the swells reshape the beaches.
- Central California: pre-spawn lingcod shallow and aggressive, and the first white sturgeon in San Pablo Bay after the rain (catch-and-release only; check CDFW).
- Northern California: the first winter steelhead enter the Smith, the Eel and the Klamath after the first big rain.
- Oregon: the last bright kings at the Chetco and Elk mouths after the rain, and the first winter steelhead in tidewater.
- Washington: South Sound chums at Kennedy Creek, Minter and Chico Creek mouths, and blackmouth as the winter areas open.
- Alaska: feeder kings as the inside winter king season starts in the Southeast, and late steelhead on the Kasilof and the Kenai Peninsula streams into early November.
In Hawaii, mahi run the current lines and big ulua move into the sand channels.
The Great Lakes
Fall on the Great Lakes is tributary season. Lake Ontario has fall steelhead and browns in every tributary on beads and egg sacs, and the Lower Niagara fishes from now until spring. Lake Michigan has steelhead in the river pools, browns on the piers, and whitefish running into the Menominee and the harbors. Lake Huron fishes late muskie on Lake St. Clair and Au Sable steelhead. On Lake Erie the fall steelhead run peaks in the Pennsylvania and Ohio tributaries, and big walleye feed at night off the western-basin breakwalls. Lake Superior has late steelhead in the UP and Wisconsin tributaries before the rivers freeze. More in our Great Lakes salmon and steelhead guide and the Lake Erie walleye guide.
Big freshwater
- Muskie country: last open water for the giants in Wisconsin and Minnesota (Mille Lacs is famous for fall giants on the rock reefs), plus Pennsylvania and Virginia's New River.
- TVA lakes: Tennessee smallmouth on Dale Hollow and Center Hill as the water chills, and Pickwick's smallies and trophy blue cats in Alabama.
- Stripers: follow the gulls on Oklahoma's big reservoirs, Texoma and Keystone.
- Crappie: brush piles in Texas, North Carolina and Georgia; in Florida the specks school up for open-water spider rigs.
- Trout: brown trout spawn on Arkansas's White River and in Colorado, so streamer the pre-spawn fish and leave the redds alone. Steelhead on California's Klamath and Trinity.
Why fall fishing is so good
Three things line up in fall. First, the water cools through the middle of most species' comfort range: Fish Scouter's forecast treats 62 to 78°F as ideal for speckled trout, 65 to 82°F for redfish, 50 to 68°F for stripers and 44 to 56°F for steelhead, and in October and November most coastal and inland waters pass through those bands. Second, bait leaves: shrimp out of the marsh, mullet down the beaches, menhaden and sand eels down the Atlantic coast, and predators follow. Third, fronts and storms concentrate fish at passes, inlets and river mouths. Our water temperature guide explains how the app uses this.
Regulations
Fall brings closures: flounder runs in Texas, Alabama and Florida, snook in Florida, groundfish on the Pacific, spawning reefs and rivers in the Great Lakes. We don't print limits because they change. Every Fish Scouter fish-and-water guide links the state agency that sets the rule. Check it before you keep a fish.
Find this week's bite with Fish Scouter
We think Fish Scouter is the best way to know what is biting near you this fall, on any US coast, the Great Lakes or inland water. Tap a spot and it ranks the fish there for this hour on the season stage, the water temperature, the tide or river flow, the light, the pressure and the wind, explains the score in plain words, and scores the next seven days. Try Fish Scouter free and see what your water is doing this weekend.