Do you bother throwing topwater at all on sunny days, even when there are mixed clouds and sun?

[Ohioguy25]

I will occasionally pitch a spook, rico or even a plopper at shaded areas but only when nothing else is working.

[Catt]

On a sunny day if I have 4-6" of water above thick "grass" I gonna be throwing a big Zara Spook. 

[GreenPig]

Yes, on clearer lakes.

[papajoe222]

YES! Especially a walking bait. Unlike you, I will choose a topwater when I encounter active fish any time of day. Just last month, the largemouth were crushing a jerkbait over the tops of weedbeds. I picked up a Super Spook Jr and had a blast catching 2-3lb. fish. The bite died, but for an hour or so, it was what I dream of.

My PB largemouth came on a Spook at 1:00PM on a sunny afternoon. Although largemouth tend to ignore topwater void of cover on sunny days, smallmouth will travel a good distance to hit one most anytime of day in clear water.  I've had them rise up for a spook from 20ft. of water and more.

[Pat Brown]

Sunny days are - for me - much better for topwater even in the dead of Summer.  Fish suspend and sit high in the water column on sunny days.  On cloudy days I have done well but it's generally in the spring when a front is significantly warmer than the surface temps.  I agree if your water is extremely clear - clouds are better for most reaction type baits.

 

My largest frog fish have all come in July on very bright sunny days with gentle breeze in open water.  Sometimes shade.  Sometimes no shade.

[Mike L]

7 hours ago, Catt said:

On a sunny day if I have 4-6" of water above thick "grass" I gonna be throwing a big Zara Spook. 

Ditto!

 

Why wouldn’t I?
I will almost always start with a Devils Horse or a Sebile depending on clarity and the area but clean up with a Big Spook also. 
 

Edit….

There are times that I won’t put the frog down at all. 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[Spankey]

I’ve never gave much thought about the sun. Top water will be the first thing I throw and that will be in low light conditions. Pop-R’s, Spooks and mini-buzzbaits types. Before day break to sun up I fell the best and most comfortable fishing it. I move away from them after activity stops or no interest. 
Frog fish pads and grass during brighter conditions. I just relate that to fish wanting to draw back and wanting to get themselves in a shaded area. But I’m probably wrong with my thoughts on that. 
I believe if your confidence level is high enough to fish top water all day long you will catch fish. 

[Mike L]

9 minutes ago, Spankey said:

Frog fish pads and grass during brighter conditions. I just relate that to fish wanting to draw back and wanting to get themselves in a shaded area. But I’m probably wrong with my thoughts on that. 

No Sir, you’re not wrong at all at least from my experience. 
 

Theres 2 reasons why pads are a magnet for Bass.
Number one of course is food, all kinds of food.. insects, bugs, prey of all kinds and sizes. 
Second is cover..Cooler, darker water and one of its best ambush environments 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[Susky River Rat]

I’ll throw top water day night sunny or cloudy. 

[FryDog62]

Yes in the mornings and towards evening. Helps to key in on shades lines that come out into the water... great ambush spots. 

[Catt]

Sometimes ya gotta fish what ya got!

 

Typical marsh around here involves fishing "grass".

 

[Bankc]

One thing I've learned about bass fishing is, all of these "rules" we make up are very flexible.  They're "rules" because they tend to be right more often than wrong.  But they're also wrong often enough that you shouldn't put too much faith in them. 

 

Typically, I'll start off throwing topwaters in the morning and keep fishing them until they stop working.  And if I see activity on the surface, I'll usually throw a topwater.  Or, if just nothing else is working or a topwater is about all I can pull cleanly pull through the weeds, I'll give them try. 

 

To me, cloudy days tend to affect the color of the topwater I choose more than whether or not I throw a topwater.  On cloudy days, I tend to use white or natural colored topwaters.  On sunny days, it's usually transparent, chrome, or black. 

[king fisher]

I give topwater a try every day.  It doesn't take long to find out if they want to hit on top, and the average size of the bass seem to be bigger.  If I don't get bit right away, I don't keep beating a dead horse.  If it works great if not, I have a whole box of lures to try and not much time to find out what they want.  I will make a cast or two with a topwater later in the day just to make sure the bass have not changed their mind.  I have caught big bass on topwater early, middle or late in the day, when it is sunny or cloudy and in clear or muddy water.  The only way to find out is to make a cast.

[gim]

1 minute ago, king fisher said:

If I don't get bit right away, I don't keep beating a dead horse.

 

This is me too.  Which is why I basically stopped throwing topwater years ago.  They stopped biting it alltogether.

 

No reason to beat a dead horse over and over.

 

[river-rat]

Absolutely. I have no hesitation using a Devils Horse, Rebel Pop-R, or Spook on sunny days. I focus on shaded areas with cover.  

 

 

[Ohioguy25]

6 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

Sunny days are - for me - much better for topwater even in the dead of Summer.  Fish suspend and sit high in the water column on sunny days.  On cloudy days I have done well but it's generally in the spring when a front is significantly warmer than the surface temps.  I agree if your water is extremely clear - clouds are better for most reaction type baits.

 

My largest frog fish have all come in July on very bright sunny days with gentle breeze in open water.  Sometimes shade.  Sometimes no shade.

Interesting, what part of the country are you in? High pressure, bluebird days push smallmouth to the bottom of the river here and they rarely come up to hit moving presentations, typically have to come to them with either finesse or a reaction bite.

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

 

This is me too.  Which is why I basically stopped throwing topwater years ago.  They stopped biting it alltogether.

 

No reason to beat a dead horse over and over.

 

Wonder what caused this, pressure?

2 hours ago, Bankc said:

One thing I've learned about bass fishing is, all of these "rules" we make up are very flexible.  They're "rules" because they tend to be right more often than wrong.  But they're also wrong often enough that you shouldn't put too much faith in them. 

 

Typically, I'll start off throwing topwaters in the morning and keep fishing them until they stop working.  And if I see activity on the surface, I'll usually throw a topwater.  Or, if just nothing else is working or a topwater is about all I can pull cleanly pull through the weeds, I'll give them try. 

 

To me, cloudy days tend to affect the color of the topwater I choose more than whether or not I throw a topwater.  On cloudy days, I tend to use white or natural colored topwaters.  On sunny days, it's usually transparent, chrome, or black. 

Amen to that regarding hard and fast rules, I‘ve been trying to pry myself free of them.

 

Having said that, interesting on your topwater color choice, I’ve always heard the inverse - bone/baitfish with sunny skies, black on cloudy days which made sense to me as the silhouette is more visible on sunny days while black is more visible on cloudy but who knows.

[gim]

15 minutes ago, Ohioguy25 said:

Wonder what caused this, pressure?

 

Yes, specifically, topwater lure use in general.  And gradually clearing waters in some cases too.

 

Used to do pretty well on frogs and buzzbaits, specifically.  I rarely even try them anymore.

[Pat Brown]

44 minutes ago, Ohioguy25 said:

Interesting, what part of the country are you in? High pressure, bluebird days push smallmouth to the bottom of the river here and they rarely come up to hit moving presentations, typically have to come to them with either finesse or a reaction bite.

Wonder what caused this, pressure?

Amen to that regarding hard and fast rules, I‘ve been trying to pry myself free of them.

 

Having said that, interesting on your topwater color choice, I’ve always heard the inverse - bone/baitfish with sunny skies, black on cloudy days which made sense to me as the silhouette is more visible on sunny days while black is more visible on cloudy but who knows.

 

 

I didn't say high pressure or bluebird I just said sunny 😏😎

 

I fish for largemouth in NC - don't know about River smallmouth but essentially - topwater is just another way to catch fish and it efficiently targets the fish that are high in the water column or buried in very very shallow cover or feeding on vast flat shallow areas (IMHO).

 

Rainy cold days usually make a Florida strain bass go deeper.  Rainy warm days - they will definitely eat a topwater depending on the rain.  Cloudy days are great for topwater if there's a gentle breeze and it's warmer.  Sunny days almost always seem to produce a good topwater bite 3 times a day.

 

High pressure bluebird can be great if you target shade and heavy cover if you're fishing largemouth.  If the weather is warmer when the sun comes out - topwater is go.  It the weather is colder when the sun comes out - probably not gonna be a great topwater bite.

[Spankey]

2 hours ago, king fisher said:

I give topwater a try every day.  It doesn't take long to find out if they want to hit on top, and the average size of the bass seem to be bigger.  If I don't get bit right away, I don't keep beating a dead horse.  If it works great if not, I have a whole box of lures to try and not much time to find out what they want.  I will make a cast or two with a topwater later in the day just to make sure the bass have not changed their mind.  I have caught big bass on topwater early, middle or late in the day, when it is sunny or cloudy and in clear or muddy water.  The only way to find out is to make a cast.

I’m always hitting my opening spot with a top water but like you I’m not gonna beat it to death because I feel the bass are there and will be willing to hit soft plastics. Or other bait. I’ll fan cast a point coming into the river. I think on more than one occasion I’ve shut down fish from hitting from being to aggressive on the amount of casting. I have to agree the river Smallies tend to be bigger on that topwater bite. 

[Fried Lemons]

It’s very niche but I’ve gotten some decent fish throwing big wakebaits at shallow cover in the sun. When they’re on this pattern the middle of the day is best because the sun is directly overhead and the shadows are smaller. Never had much luck fishing open water in the bright sun with topwater.

 

 

[learnin]

I probably fish topwaters more than makes sense as far as catching a lot of fish but I like the action and you never know.  Last week I got a good one, 20" maybe 4lbs,  on a 1/4 oz clear Pop R in 4 or 5 feet of clear water,  in a rocky bottom reservoir at around 11:30,  sunny with no clouds, about as unlikely a time or place for a top water strike as you'll find.

 

We hadn't caught anything in over an hour. The guy I was fishing with was trying Ned Rigs in deeper water with no luck and we were about ready to call it a day.  I'd made half a dozen casts around the same small piece of cover toward shore and stopped my retrieve about half way back to the boat.  It sat there about ten seconds and I wasn't expecting a strike.  The hit was so strong he had the whole bait completely in his mouth, almost swallowed it.  Took some work to get him unhooked and back in the water.

[Bankbeater]

Right now the water levels are dropping in some lakes around here so the grass is closer to the surface.  I've been fishing a clear Spook over the top of the vegetation.

If there are large clumps matted on the surface, I work a popper between the mats, but if all else fails I will fish with a clear Tiny Torpedo.

[Bird]

Every year is different.

2 years ago the WP 90 accounted for most top water fish.

Last year the Devil's Horse.

This year a top water jerkbait.

Would be nice if bass were predictable 😄

 

I mainly throw top water early and late.

[GRiver]

Around here in the summer, when the bite starts slowing down around 10-11am, I’ll throw top water in what shade or shadows I can find. I still start out at daylight chucking topwater.

[HighCountryBassAssassin]

13 hours ago, Spankey said:

I’ve never gave much thought about the sun. Top water will be the first thing I throw and that will be in low light conditions. Pop-R’s, Spooks and mini-buzzbaits types. Before day break to sun up I fell the best and most comfortable fishing it. I move away from them after activity stops or no interest. 
Frog fish pads and grass during brighter conditions. I just relate that to fish wanting to draw back and wanting to get themselves in a shaded area. But I’m probably wrong with my thoughts on that. 
I believe if your confidence level is high enough to fish top water all day long you will catch fish. 

100 percent.  I fish top water as often as I can and have great success, even on hot, clear, still days.  Confidence is half the battle with any technique.  I toss plastics on deep weed edges and can't pay for a bite. (I don't have the confidence or patience)