November is the best month on Lake MacDonald as far as I’m concerned! The water is significantly warmer and the fish really seem to respond.

It can get too warm though, particularly when the water levels are dropping due to dry conditions. In early October, the Noosa district still needed rain to prevent the water level in MacDonald from dropping dramatically. The lake supports Noosa and the surrounding towns, and when we haven’t seen rain for a while, it also supports those who survive on tank water via delivery trucks.

The bigger bass seem to be invigorated by the warmer water and have gone into turbo charge mode. Casting small bibbed minnows, particularly in green or purple, around floating rafts of lilies can pull monster bass. Similarly, spinnerbaits and bibless rattlers will get the job done, particularly when the weed face is well defined and the lure can sink seductively to the bottom. Any nearby bass will be very interested when the lure jumps off the bottom and starts to swim its way back to the boat.

The end of the Runway, Borer Creek, Three Ways and all the way up to Rusty’s Run will deliver some top shelf bass and perhaps a saratoga or two during November.

Borumba Dam will be firing well in November too. This beautiful lake is more of a saratoga fishery than MacDonald, but there are plenty of acceptable bass, yellowbelly and silver perch up there as well. The three arms deliver plenty of action, while the heavily timbered area around the eagles nest at the top of the main basin is always worth a few dozen casts for cruising ‘toga.

Gold spinnerbaits are a gun tool at Borumba and have accounted for lots of very big saratoga as well as bass, yellows and even silvers. I’ve only caught a few silvers on lures and they all came from the Borumba arm of the lake around the shag nests. I suppose they don’t mind a bit of berley from time to time!