Recently I was fishing a pond on a clear sunny day with no wind. These conditions have always been the toughest for me. Usually the only bites I get in this situation comes from fishing in and over cover. After thoroughly working the limited cover with a frog and a jig I tried to cover lots of water with a lipless crankbait and some with a Colorado blade spinnerbait. Ended up getting skunked. 

 

In conditions like these (sunny, clear skies and calm) what should I turn to when the cover is not producing? Any suggestions? (I'm shorebound BTW)

Try a Carolina rig or a t-rig with a 6 to 10" worm or a swim jig

Shakeyhead. Lighter line.

 

Fish Early in the AM and late in the PM 

They will be tight to cover.  Fish the shady side of cover with a weightless Senko, trick worm or u vibe.  Fish the shady side of a drop off or lay downs.  Fish slow and just shake the bait after letting it sit.  If that doesn't work, swim the u vibe through the cover.

 

There's a lot of chat about weed-lines and mud-lines, but not much chat about 'Shade-Lines'.

In the AM, west facing slopes offer a long wedge of shade that extends to the west.

In the PM, east-facing slopes and drop-offs provide a long wedge of shade

that extends to the east. The steeper the drop-off, the more extensive the wedge of shade,

yet too few anglers are exploiting these twilight zones.

 

Roger

 

 

 

 

Echoing RoLo - any channels in the pond can hold and produce, sometimes for the same shade reasons, sometime just being a bit deeper and cooler, and naturally by offing a breakup along a fairly smooth bottom.  I used to have great luck swimming a black with orange tail 6" worm across or along little creek channels mid day.  Didn't do anything fancy, just slowly worked it down or across.

On those days I have to remind myself to SLOW DOWN, more often than not in those conditions I usually head out and cover what I can with my normal search stuff crank/chatter/fluke and usually after about 20 30 casts with no action I throw on a Texas rig worm/craw and and bring my fishing speed to a grinding halt, we are talking several minutes on casts a lot of the time and that is usually when I'm able to pick up a few bites and avoid being skunked. Aside from the Texas rig I sometimes drop-shot, shaky head or wacky worm as well, just helps me keep it slow. If you have the discipline and the patience, fishing very slow is hands down the best way to avoid a skunk.

I target cover in the shade, then cover in the sun, then shade lines.  If that doesn't work I work a reaction bait of some sort as I walk back to the car to drive somewhere else.  

On clear calm days on my pond u find smaller buzzwords and poppers,or a Stanley ribbit  to work very wrll.  Also a t rigged weightless creature bait to try and resemble bluegill have definitely been good producers

Sunny days - post spawn - I start out thinking the deeper edge of whatever weed line is available OR main lake points slightly above the thermocline.   I'm thinking low and slow.

 

 I know there are lots of other options and I'll probably pursue them as the day goes on, but that is where I start.   Main lake points - half ounce jika rig with a brush hog or a lizard.   Deepish weed lines - some sort of jig/worm combination, most likely a quarter ounce Brewer spider slider head with a BPS paddle tail stick-o.   Option B is the same head with a ribbon tail worm - probably a 7' one.

Ned rig?