cold water tidal river fishing

[3dkicker]

Finished up the season with a two day tournament on the river. Water temps were in the low to mid 50's. Grass was dying but there was still some pads up and a little green grass. Crankbaits did real well but you had to work you way through all the 10-11.75" bass before you found a keeper or two and they were scarce.
Baits used this weekend.
Caught a bunch of short fish and couple keepers on Baby Brush Hog in pumpkin or green pumpkin. I've caught a lot of November bass on this bait over the last 10 years. Best fish I caught was 3lbs or so on the BBH in 8-10' off of some old bridge pilings. Had one shake me off, it must have been related to some of the smallies found up river. This fish launched itself at least 2' out of the water and shook me.
I got a couple bites on the Kaotik Shaker Bait Pro (think chatterbait) in the pads. Bad thing was I broke it off in the pads and couldn't find it. I had an excellent year throwing this bait with my custom skirt. Got to pick a couple more this winter.
Threw the Luhr Jensen Speed Trap in Chartruese Shad and caught a ton of fish. Most of them short. Great bait to fish in the fall over dying grass. Picked up two keepers on consecutive casts that put me in the money. Bandit 100 and RC 2.5, normally killers on the river, didn't produce any keepers only a dink or two.
Finally I did catch a bass on Capt. Mike's favorite 3" Chart/gold(?) grub fishing it over pads. This grub has a great wiggle and Capt should be proud of his bait.

Ended the year with a 3rd place finish (tied for 3rd) and hopefully enough points to get a little bling for the office wall at the EOY Banquet.