Sunny Day Bass

Question
It seems as though it is always very overcast and raining whenever i go fishing.  I thought this would be horrible for fishing, but i do very well when it is cloudy and raining.  The thing that gets me is that i cant seem to catch anything when the clouds go away and the sun comes out.  I tried moving to deeper water and fishing tight to cover, but they just wont bite.  For example, this morning it was very cloudy and looked like it was going to rain, and we caught 5 fish right off the bat...this was at about 9 am.  But then, around 10am the clouds went away and the sun came out and the temp (air temp) went up to about 75 or so, and we could not get a single bite.  We wacky wormed (which i have found to be deadly especially during high water conditions when the fish are shallow), crainkbaits, spinnerbaits, and bottomrigged worms.  The fish just turned off when the sun came out.  What can i do to catch those pesky bass!?  Thanks.

Answer
Hi Caleb; I think I answered a question for you before didn't I.  Glad to have you back with a real tough one this time.

To begin with I have found this situation many times and have never found a sure-fire way of solving it.  However at times I have been able to find and catch bass under these situations.

The bass may have just simply turned off at the time the sun came out.  It may not have been the weather at all.  There are times when the bass feed for a time then suddenly turn off and you can't buy a bite.  Even the pros find this in tourneys.  

However  quite often the fish just go inactive but will bite if you find them and give them the right presentation.
They may, at times move deep but more likely they simply find a place nearby out of the sun and will not move far for a lure.  If they have been biting at the edge of a weed bed they more than likely go back into the weed bed for shelter from the light.  As you probably know fish do not have eyelids and a strong penetrating sun in clear water would affect them greatly.
If the area nearby where you fish has lilly pads, I mean the big ones not the dollar size ones, try tossing an unweighted worm or plastic craw on top of a pad and shaking it until it falls off.
This will sometimes trigger a strike.
Sometimes this is the time for a Johnsons Silver minnow to shine.  Use a pork frog and cast the spoon way back in the pads (dollar pads are ok for this) and work it slowly out over and around the pads.  It is a good idea when casting to keep the rod tip high and the line clear of the pads to keep from having the line go under the pads and hang. Also treat the spoon n frog like you would a topwater bait,  that is wait until you feel the strike not when you see the boil. If you strike at the boil you will likely pull it away from him.  I have caught some very good mid morning to mid afternoon bass using this method.  Make sure you sharpen the hook on the Johnson Silver Minnow as it comes from the box very dull.
I have tried other types of spoons but have found the weight , balance and shape of the Johnson works the best.  And I do not have any stock in the company that makes them.  Wish I did as they have been successful for a long time.

Of course if you are a live bait fisherman this is a good time for shiner fishing in and around weeds and downfalls or log jams.  A lively frog tossed into the openings in the weeds is often a good bet.
Or even an artificial frog will sometimes bring old mossyback up out of the weeds.

If when you decide to go deep first try the first break beyond the weed edge and try to find some sort of cover.  A sunken log, a stump row or some rocks.  The fish seldom stay on a drop without cover.
If it is legal try trolling along the first drop with a deep running crank bait.
This will often find sunken cover that doesn't show up well on a depth finder.  You may lose your lure so use one that you can afford to lose.  Mark the area and work it with a marker buoy.  Fish the area thoroughlly with a variety of lures working from deep to shallow down the break and from shallow to deep up the break.  Also try running lures parallel to the break.

If nothing seems to work in one of these methods your best bet is to try to find some water of a different shade.  If you have been fishing clear water try to find some that is more murky or if murky try to find more clear water.  A line where clear and dirty water meet is a bit of structure that should not be passed up.  At times the fish will go into the murky side and wait for bait to blunder in.

If none of these things work try going way up stream in a creek looking for a differnt group of fish.  Remember all fish in a lake are not doing the same thing all the time.  Fish out in a lake may be quite different than those up a murky stream.
I love to push way back into sloughs and slow moving tributaries seeking a different group of fish from those in the main body.

Sometimes and all too often it is just the fact that the fish have turned off all over and after a while you can't find any you may as well go to another kind of fishing or go home.  Of course I seldom do either but keep looking and hoping they will turn on again.  Sometimes they do sometimes they don't.  That is Bass fishing my friend!

I hope this has been some help and will enable you to find some fish under these very difficult conditions.


Jack L. Gaither
Lake Seminole, GA.