Fishing Sunny Days

Fishing sunny days can be tough. Some times, it appears as if the lake has gone dead. When fishing on sunny days you need to understand a few things. First of all fish require three basic things to survive, oxygen, food, and safety. Secondly, the sun makes it easier to see in the water.

Fish need oxygen to live. Now that's a basic understanding of life. However, fish will get sluggish when oxygen levels fall. Warmer water holds less oxygen. Thus, the fish tend to go deeper on hot sunny days. There's another reason fish go deeper too. On bright sunny days fish know they are vulnerable from above. Fish know they can be seen by all types of predators on sunny days, so they go deeper or find cover to hide. The fish are less likely to stray far from their cover to chase your lure too. But fear not, the fish still want to eat (unless oxygen levels are too low.)

So what can you do?

The trick on a sunny day is to find the fish. Look for cover. Where would a fish hide. Every lake, river, or stream is different. Once you've found the spot you think the fish are hanging out, you've got to get your bait right into that spot. This can be tricky. But remember, on bright sunny days that fish may not stray far from the cover to chase a meal. Yes, the old lunker wants to eat, but she doesn't want to be eaten!

You can see into the water a lot better on sunny days. So too can the fish. The fish can see every detail on your lure. If it doesn't look like a meal, they aren't going to bite it. Try to use some real looking baits. Realistic flies, or high quality soft plastics. Personally I like to use the Northland Tackle Dip Stick Worms. They sink realistic and are flavored and scented. I have had success on sunny days with these baits. I think the biggest reason is that I can put them where I want them. Once the worm is there you don't need to do much with it. I like to twitch it a bit and do just about anything to make it tease and tempt. If I have to go deep, I can put a Northland Sling Shot Worm Weight on it and get it down deeper. You might also consider going to a lighter pound test monofilament. The fish may be able to see the larger diameter sizes and get spooked.

Other Considerations:

I think it's best to try different presentations on sunny days, but the most important aspect will be to find where the fish are hanging out. Even on prime fishing days in the best of conditions only 20% of any body of water will hold fish. On sunny days that percentage may very well start to shrink as fish are less likely to come out.

Have fun with it. Sometimes it is frustrating, but if fishing was easy and predictable it wouldn't be any fun. Just being outdoors is a wonderful break from life.

A true story:

One very sunny hot humid day, I went to the lake with my two children. When we got to the lake they both wanted to fish. At the time they were into pan fish, blue gills to be exact. When my two kids fished for bluegills, daddy didn't do much fishing. I literally took a fish off a hook roughly every two minutes!

It just so happened that my rod had a Jitterbug on it. That's right, a top water Jitterbug. I was too lazy to switch to something more appropriate for a sunny day. I cast it out, it hit the water and one of my children was asking me to take a tiny little bluegill off the hook when BAM! The biggest large mouth bass I have ever caught in this small lake nailed that top water Jitterbug (The bass weighed just about 5 lbs. I have to stress this is a small body of water in New England!). Now, that Jitterbug was nowhere near cover! It just goes to show you that you never know. It's hard to predict fish behavior. I have now caught two large large mouth bass on a Jitterbug on bright sunny afternoons. Both times I was being lazy fishing with my kids. So try something new, you never know!

Jax Cat Tackle