Fishing Calm Bluebird Sky Conditions

[Scotty58]

I just wanted to see what your guys strategies were on these types of days? I have a local tournament tomorrow and the weather forecast is calling for Sunny, 90 degrees with wind gusts only reaching 7 or 8 mph tomorrow. I fished the lake today with almost the exact conditions and the water temp was 84 degrees. Caught 3 small ones but no other luck. I know the fish are skittish and you have to have a very natural presentation on these days. I try to scale down my texas rigs a little and slow down my retrieve. Any other things you guys do that seems to really help you out?

[Raul]

Fish lipless cranks and spinnerbaits as fast as I can reel.

[ww2farmer]

It's gonna depend on the body of water, what works for me, on my home lakes under those conditions, may.............or may not work for you. But, here is what I do:

 

#1 Fish ANY WHERE there is a light breeze (providing it's a fish holding area), slick calm water in those conditions is adding an extra thing that works against you.

 

#2 Heavy cover and shade.............that means thick grass and/or boat docks. They tend to be tight to cover, if not downright buried in it in on these types of days. Just "fishing around" this stuff won't get many bites from quality fish, you have to drop it on their nose.

 

#3 Downsize the bait, but not the weight......for example, if the grass flipping bite has been hot on "normal" sized bait (like a large profile heavy jig, or creature bait) I'll trim and thin my jig skirts, and use a smaller trailer (or smaller flipping bait if I am using plastic) BUT increase the rate of fall. Make them bite it by plopping it in their laps fast.

 

#4 If #2, and 3 are not productive, I head to deeper water,/off shore structure and cover with drop shotting, shaky head, or finesse football jig gear.

 

#5 If you can not buy a bite around cover.........fish for the dreaded suspending fish. I have fished for hours following my own #1,2,3, and 4 points of advice, only to haul water, and had to go after fish suspending outside of cover with a slow falling vertical bait like a wacky rigged stick bait, or letting a fluke sink painfully slow.  Sometime burning a crankbait through these suspending fish will get reaction bites, but in my exp....you have to keep the bait slightly above them, or at the same depth they are holding,these fish seem very very unwilling to go down for anything below them.

[bigbill]

Clear water conditions natural colors, smaller sized baits fished faster. It's skill that catches fish not luck.

[papajoe222]

Flip side is fish slow and tight to cover.  A reaction bite is great when you can get them, but even then, you'll need to get close to cover or find suspended fish.

[A-Jay]

I had those type conditions today: almost 90 degrees & Flat A$$ Calm.

 

It was Tough Sledding.  

  

LIke ww2farmer mentioned - the wind is your friend - any wind, even just a breeze.

 

I would drop shot a rage craw around deep weedlines until a little breeze would kick up and then I could get a few bass to hit a Rage Blade w/ swimbait trailer in the same spots.  

 

Smaller bass came on the drop shot and the fish you'd be looking for came on the Blade.

 

A-Jay

[Scotty58]

Yeah the one decent fish I caught today was next to a laydown. Came on a 1/4oz Texas rigged zoom super hog. May up size to 3/8 weight tomorrow. The lake has alot of laydowns and vegetation. Some docks but not a ton. Got a spinnerbait with the skirt taken off and a fluke rigged on it ready. Figured might be something different that they haven't seen much

[scaleface]

Fish lipless cranks and spinnerbaits as fast as I can reel.

The default answer on this forum is to slow down and let the fish get a good look at your fake bait .  I speed things up too . I like to go small and fast at least to see if it works , if not  oh well .

[Jig Man]

I just finished 3 days of those conditions in a clear highland reservoir that has no vegetation and very little timber. 

 

Day 1 I had no wind so I fished jigs and plastics.  I only had 2 fish in 6 hours before I went back to camp.

 

Day 2 I had a light NW wind so I broke out a chartreuse buzz bait and caught 7 bass on it.  They were on main lake points in 2-3 feet of water.  Then I switched to a white  3/8 oz spinner bait and caught 2.  When that bite was gone I caught 2 on a jig.

 

Day 3 I had a decent wind from the S.  I used the buzz bait.  They didn't want the chartreuse so I gave them white.  The buzz bait bite was1/2 way back in the coves.  I caught 5 with a 4# lmb kicker.  When I decided they wouldn't hit it any longer I switched to the 1/2 oz white spinner bait and caught 11 more. 

 

I still can't understand why none of the regular (worms, jigs, tubes, craws, etc) would produce no matter what type of bank or how shallow or deep I fished.

[Wayne P.]

I fished Thursday in those conditions. I used weedless wacky rigged finesse worms in the 12'-17' depth range.

Only caught 44 bass. 

 

This is one of them:

 

[Raul]

The default answer on this forum is to slow down and let the fish get a good look at your fake bait .  I speed things up too . I like to go small and fast at least to see if it works , if not  oh well .

 

Yup, but I ain´t "default"  .

[gulfcaptain]

Where I fish, I love bright cloudless sunny hot middle of the day fishing.  Why, because I know where I fish those fish are going to be in the heaviest grass or cover they can find which sets up nicely to go punching, not to mention most fishing the morning have packed up and gone home to cool off leaving it all to me.

[poisonokie]

Yeah, I caught a nice one the other day flipping a baby d bomb on a 3/0 jungle flipping hook and a 3/4 oz tungsten weight. The fast fall of a compact bait seems to force reaction strikes under bluebird skies. So I'd say flip the weeds right on the bank, especially around rip rap.

[SirSnookalot]

I gravitate to shady areas in bright sun, early morning towards the bank getting the sun.

[Catt]

I agree with Wayne, its time to get Wacky

[A-Jay]

I fished Thursday in those conditions. I used weedless wacky rigged finesse worms in the 12'-17' depth range.

Only caught 44 bass. 

 

This is one of them:

 

 

Now you're just showing off . . .

 

Nice Wayne

 

 

A-Jay

[Primus]

I'm a little late to this post but I will add a couple of things that have worked for me in addition to the good suggestions posted so far . The first is go to tiny size baits and fish them with a medium to fast retrieve . The Lucky Craft 0.5 squarebill has been a great lure for this application .

 

My version of the Ned rig which I've been fishing for a long time, 1/16 small mushroom jighead with a 3" senko .I have not tried the Zman version but it's obviously performing well for a lot of fisherman .

 

Last but not least are large baits fished fast . Since last year had a I've had success fishing a 1-1/4 oz or 1-1/2 oz Dirty  Jig's grass jig with a Rage Craw trailer fishing outside weedlines or throwing it right into the grass, the fast fall forces a reaction bite and  sometimes the suspended bass will follow the bait down . The lakes generally have very clear water and the 50 lb braid that I was using didn't scare them off . It's fun jacking them with a flipping stick . 

[Preytorien]

I don't seem to have much issue with the bluebird sky condition. It's the calm that makes it tough for me. Even with downsized baits, I'm still spooking fish from the shoreline at the onset of my lure even subtly hitting the surface. It's really frustrating to see a big swirl just as your weightless fluke or Ned Rig hits the water. 

 

That's why I'd rather have bluebird but slightly breezy conditions. Luckily, that's far more the normal here than totally calm.

[Mainebass1984]

 I would either go very shallow or go "deep".

 

I would target the thickest weeds I could find, frogging, punching and flipping. At times fish can be holding in shady areas as well, docks and trees. If you have been catching them around docks, trees, shallower points and weeds, then all of a sudden they seem to have disappeared..... It is time to try deeper. In August here in the northeast a calm bluebird sky is usually associated with a cold front passing through followed by a high pressure system. The fishing can be very difficult for the shallower fish. If that happens I would fish deeper, from 15-35 ft targeting rockpiles and the steepest drop offs I could find. A drop shot, Carolina rig or wacky rigged 4 inch senko with a weighted hook would be my first 3 options.  A silver buddy can do well too even with the surface temperatures around 80 degrees.

[agilmorefishing]

depends what you are fishing for, where you are fishing, etc. Fish generally relate to structure and are either caught super deep or super shallow. They don't roam in these types of conditions, normally. If you know where structure is, fish it thoroughly. If not, fish the obvious.

[WRB]

I just wanted to see what your guys strategies were on these types of days? I have a local tournament tomorrow and the weather forecast is calling for Sunny, 90 degrees with wind gusts only reaching 7 or 8 mph tomorrow. I fished the lake today with almost the exact conditions and the water temp was 84 degrees. Caught 3 small ones but no other luck. I know the fish are skittish and you have to have a very natural presentation on these days. I try to scale down my texas rigs a little and slow down my retrieve. Any other things you guys do that seems to really help you out?

r

A week has gone by since your tournament, what strategy worked; deep or shallow, fast or slow?

Tom

[Felix77]

It's become blatantly clear to me that I just truly suck in these conditions.  Had a day to forget yesterday which compelled me to come here to find out more about fishing in these conditions.   My one and only bite came on a 3/8oz flipping setup with a Green Pumpkin Power Worm.  It was very shallow, shady and on the inside weed edge.   It dropped like a ton and got hit hard.  Seems to make sense after reading these posts.

Any new words of wisdom since this post is about a year old.

[A-Jay]

I had these conditions myself two days ago.  Was a deep clear lake with brown bass out numbering the green ones 2 to 1.

Not many docks and shoreline cover is practically nothing.   Drop shot with 10lb braid & 6lb leader was the only way I could get bit after say 10 AM. 

With craws on the bottom right at the ramp, a Nose hooked Rage Craw was an easy choice, even for a knuckle head like me.   

Secondary drop past the deep weedline (mostly cabbage) in 15-25 ft seemed to be the best areas and I stayed on the "Breezy" side of the lake all day as the flat water is fun to fish but largely unproductive.

Ended up with a few brownies nothing picture worthy but I did get my string pilled a few times.  btw - the pike bite offs were often & frustrating.

A-Jay

[Nice_Bass]

Bluebird skies in earlier spring I may stay home. 

the rest of they year I have found it makes zero difference on how or where I fish as I am either fishing deep structure or finding bait or fish on electronics prior to even putting a line in the water.  

[Jaderose]

That's when I look for the gnarliest mats of muck I can find and start throwing frogs