What NOT to throw under bluebird skies??

[Cgolf]

I actually have found that I either need to let the same plastics I was throwing prior to the front moving through sit longer or toss a spinnerbait. Last year I did a summer and fall trip to a N. WI lake and in the summer post cold front they shut down completely on plastics and just started killing spinnerbaits with a clear sunny sky in water you can see bottom in 10+feet. The fall trip saw the same when a warm front pushed in and they again ignored plastics but ate a spinnerbait.

 

One other baffling thing I have noticed about these conditions is that you get less hits, the hits are just crazy vicious, and the size of the fish runs larger. So for me these tend to be trophy fish days.

[gim]

Something that has not been mentioned here yet is water clarity. Crystal clear water on a hot, bluebird sunny day is just about the hardest conditions I can think of. I would choose a slow finesse presentation in natural colors.

[A-Jay]

47 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Something that has not been mentioned here yet is water clarity. Crystal clear water on a hot, bluebird sunny day is just about the hardest conditions I can think of. I would choose a slow finesse presentation in natural colors.

This is my life June to September.

Throw in the epic and seemingly prehistoric, Hexagenia limbata hatch,

and there's good times for everyone . . . 

?

A-Jay

[flyfisher]

10 hours ago, Captain Phil said:

Bright blue bird skies positions bass into and under cover.  It also reduces the size of their strike zone.  Many bass fisherman believe this makes for bad fishing.  What you must do is fish closer to the fish, slow down and make multiple casts to the same target.  This is perfect conditions for flipping in those lakes where water clarity is compromised.  Slow rolling a spinnerbait in and around a pad field can also work if you get close enough to the pads.  How close?  It may be inches, not feet and certainly not yards. Most weekend bass fishermen don't fish close enough to the fish.  They make one fishless cast 3-4 feet from the cover and move on.  Someone who knows better, works the cover multiple times from different angles and catches fish.

This is one area where I feel me being in a kayak helps tremendously.  When I first started fly fishing and it was for trout, the guy who taught me a ton basically said his goal was to dissect every area in a way that every fish saw his fly at least once and if at all possible, from multiple angles.  I apply this same mindset to bass fishing and being in a kayak I am not looking to waste time paddling more than fishing.  

 

great advice man.

[Hammer 4]

9 hours ago, gimruis said:

Something that has not been mentioned here yet is water clarity. Crystal clear water on a hot, bluebird sunny day is just about the hardest conditions I can think of. I would choose a slow finesse presentation in natural colors.

I would have to disagree. July, 110 degrees, gin clear water. Was fishing a small club tourney, tossed a 7" jointed hard swimbait in about 4' of water that had a riprap. Wound up catching a 6 1/2 lb'r for a kicker that won the tourney.

Granted, it can be tough, and in conditions like that, I try to toss something that I'm thinking no one else would. Think outside the box.

[gim]

12 hours ago, Hammer 4 said:

July, 110 degrees, gin clear water.

I’ve never fished in those conditions, ever. It’s never been that hot here. And even if it was, I wouldn’t be out there anyways. It was 90+ degrees here for about 10 days recently and I sheltered in my air conditioned basement the entire time.

 

if you’re in a tournament, not much you can do as the date is set in advance.

[Russ E]

The heat of summer is my favorite time to fish. once Iacclimate to the heat, it produces the biggest fish of the year for me.

I take 3 basic approaches on hot calm bluebird days.

First is skipping a frog into shady areas.

 

Second is dragging a big worm or swivelhead jig along weed edges or ledges.

 

Third in clear water I slowly swim glidebaits around docks or weed edges. this can produce some of the biggest bites of the year. It seems to work best in the middle of the day.  it can be nerve racking, because often times big bass will follow without biting.

[Luke Barnes]

Well I'll be darned if you all weren't right. Had a aqua frog Poppin Pad Crasher tied on and found a shade line with weeds and caught two on the frog in bluebird conditions. Granted it was really close to sunset it was still a shaded area and the frog over weeds worked. Thanks everyone. Oh and they bit a Firecraw Jackhammer too.

[papajoe222]

Rocks. I've yet to get a strike using one.

[MN Fisher]

2 minutes ago, papajoe222 said:

Rocks. I've yet to get a strike using one.

Need to aim better.

[Luke Barnes]

2 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

Rocks. I've yet to get a strike using one.

What a wealth of knowledge 

[Bankbeater]

I can't think of a bait that I wouldn't try on a bluebird sky day. 

[00bullitt]

Bluebird skies in 85deg or hotter weather on clear water.....top water can be king.....and over fish 50' deep.

I mostly fish Lanier, Hartwell and Russell (in GA). I fish over brush in 30-50' of open water and make 100' plus casts. I keep my top water box on the deck and cycle through topwater baits and presentations until the fish get fired up enough to come eat at the surface. Livescope has been extremely enlightening for this. I did not do this before I had livescope. Once I find the bait they want, and get the wolf pack fired up, I will fire a big glide, swimbait or magnum fluke (6-8") in there and typically yield the bigger/biggest fish of the pack. I always have a one/two punch ready.

 

Spotted bass and even Largemouth will flat out destroy topwater from deep haunches in the summer.....it just takes the work to figure out what sound, style and presentation they want on a given day. Then it often repeats as a pattern over other deep structure spots.

[Cgolf]

On 6/18/2021 at 3:25 PM, gimruis said:

Something that has not been mentioned here yet is water clarity. Crystal clear water on a hot, bluebird sunny day is just about the hardest conditions I can think of. I would choose a slow finesse presentation in natural colors.

 

On 6/18/2021 at 4:16 PM, A-Jay said:

This is my life June to September.

Throw in the epic and seemingly prehistoric, Hexagenia limbata hatch,

and there's good times for everyone . . . 

?

A-Jay

 

Not sure about A-Jay, but I love fishing clear water vs stained. I grew up near Geneva Lake and those that know it know it is as clear as they come. The lake we vacation on is very clear as well and I personally think fish are way more predictable in clear water than stained water. My home lake that is pretty nasty is difficult to fish mostly because there isn't a lot of structure and the weeds are just bizarre how they grow and how thick, millfoil would be an upgrade and we don't want that. Personally I think that clear water gets in peoples heads and messes with them.

 

To the topic at hand. This morning river fishing after a big cold front with rain pushed through, I had 1 hit and landed a 20" tank smallie on a Ned with a drop shot worm, happened to be a big bite smallie smasher I was trying, but others like the missile baits bombshot work great too. Like most frontal bass this thing killed it and I first thought I had a big carp on!

 

 Yes that is an ugly stick in the picture, one of the ones I talked about in the now locked thread, that stays in my truck all summer, they catch big fish too? 

 

[Ratherbfishing]

Around here, true bluebird days usually occur "post-frontal"  (otherwise the usual humidity is so high as to cancel out the "bluebird" effect).  In other words, HOT weather and "bluebird skys" don't usually correlate (the conditions the OP describes don't usually go together).  Maybe they do in some locales but not usually around here.  Having said that, when it is a bluebird day (post frontal), I generally SLOW DOWN and do not try to force bass to chase (when they have no proclivity to do so).  In other words, no crankbaits, no spinnerbaits or chatterbaits, no topwater. I use almost exclusively soft plastic (or jigs) and pick through cover as slowly as I can stand it.

 

On the other hand, on bright HOT days I believe bass are susceptible to regular feeding periods and "reaction" bites and that opens up the possibilities (bait choices and techniques) considerably.  The limiting factor being primarily BRIGHT sunlight.  The jury is still out for me as far as to WHY bass mostly avoid bright sunlight.  Perhaps it is because it is irritating to their eyes OR because they would rather lurk in the dark and/or in edges where they can hide and grab unwary and unlucky prey.  So, either the bass will be deeper water, in murkier water, or in shade provided by cover, vegetation, etc.  OR when waves disrupt the penetration of sunlight.  But in any event, There is a plethora of baits that will work in these conditions, assuming they are used appropriately. 

 

Periodically, I witness fishermen who choose a bait or technique because it's what they WANT to do (or because it's what they saw on tv or the interenet the day before) rather than what conditions mandate.  I've been guilty of this myself.  Just not as often.  Hopefully not as often.

 

This is a very long winded answer but the question begs and necessitates such an answer.  There are always exceptions but they are just that-exceptions.

[Krux5506]

When you defy the odds with a specific bait it's when we start going a bit nutty in our fishermen heads. 

 

I fished bluebird skies yesterday, with calm conditions throwing ned rigs, T-rigs, and drop shot with practically zero luck. I picked up my spinnerbait rod with a half oz Z-man spinnerbait and a smallie smashed it first cast. Didn't happen again after that, but still...

[txchaser]

Hot bluebird saturday this weekend, and still to light wind. Catching fish here and there on random stuff, couldn't put together much pattern besides middle weed edge (two rows of weeds emergent). 

I needed to start covering some more water, was spending too much time picking stuff apart with too few results, so I start throwing the chatterbait. Game on! Chatterbait was nearly last on the list after catching them on bubba shots, slow-dragged swimbaits, and senkos, and punching and frogging with no results whatsoever...