In High Percentage Fishing by Josh Alwine, on page 68, he says that his statistics show sunny and partly sunny days to have higher catch rates than overcast days, by roughly 20%. His statistics were based on 10,000 catches.

This surprises me, as I’ve always heard that overcast days are the best. I’ve heard pros talk about overcast days being better.

Traditional thinking in bass fishing says that overcast days should be better fishing than sunny days, but this runs counter to what I’ve experienced my whole life. In my thousands and thousands of hours I’ve spent fishing, I’ve never noticed a correlation between overcast or cloudy days and better fishing. 
 

I would agree with what’s in that book. Sunny days seem to be better fishing for me. And not only that, sunlight specifically can really turn the fish on and sunny spots I’ve found hold more fish than spots the sun isn’t hitting. This is even more true during colder months of the year. 
 

Another thing to consider is that sunny days often are a sign of stable weather, while cloudy days are often a sign of a front moving in or out. Stable weather usually is better for the fish. 
 

In my opinion, the cloudy day and better bite thing is one of those old pieces of traditional knowledge that can’t get proven false so it persists, which is a lot of traditional bass thinking. This is why I think so much of traditional bass knowledge runs counter to what I actually experience on the water. Tradition means nothing to me  

Gosh, I don't know. I prefer to launch on cloudy mornings. Foggy? Even better. Raining? Better still. On sunny days, the raptors fish too. I see them diving on bass. I've seen bass writhing in their talons. However, I haven't kept records and Josh Alwine has. I do know that I've launched on some foggy, overcast mornings and the fishing was bonkers. 

Interesting theory. I've been logging my fishing trips since 1991...tracking things like sunny/cloudy, air temp, water temp, moon phase, wind speed, etc.

 

My hope was to somehow crack the code and be able to identify days that will be good fishing. I also log deer and waterfowl hunts. I've gotten skunked on days that looked great on paper...and caught some hawgs on days where expectations were low. 

 

I'm no scientist, and no where near a statistician.

 

I have given up trying to crack the code. My best advice...get on the water, wet a line, try different things, pay attention to what mother nature is telling you, and enjoy yourself. 

 

I do enjoy cloudy days more than sunny days. There is just something about a cool, cloudy, crisp fall day on the water (or in the blind...or walking the Sandhills chasing mule deer). 

 

 

I am on the side of clouds/rain too, but I will say that it is season-dependent.

 

Early spring (and winter, presumably although I don't ice fish), are usually much better on sunny, warmer days.  The water is usually still quite cold and fish are coming out of their winter doldrums, so warm sunny days here in April and May help.

 

Summer time, I much prefer clouds and/or rain.  Low light conditions give predators an advantage over their prey.  IMO they tend to be more aggressive and are willing to chase moving lures.

 

@WRB-2.0 has targeted and caught record breaking largemouth and several times here I've heard him say that the most ideal conditions were during a light, steady rain.

 

Some of this is just what I am more comfortable fishing in too.  Blazing hot sun is pretty unbearable.  Clouds and/or rain is very tolerable.  I can fish for hours on end in those conditions.  Not so much in the hot sun.

27 minutes ago, DaubsNU1 said:

I have given up trying to crack the code. My best advice...get on the water, wet a line, try different things, pay attention to what mother nature is telling you, and enjoy yourself. 

 

I too can't crack the code. The bass are always moving and I don't know why or where they're going. I just know that my task is to find them. Some bass pundits remind me of stock market pundits, always explaining with surety after the fact. You know when the market goes up or down and pundits explain why? Well, if they really know what moves the market up and down, wouldn't they be trillionaires? Same with bass. If there was a person who truly understood why bass move and where they go, wouldn't they be KVD times ten? I'm not talking about general patterns. I think they do apply. I'm talking about being certain about why and where bass move.* Like you, Daubs, I try to launch and enjoy myself. If I see an old tractor glowing on the shore, I photograph it:

 

 

23 minutes ago, gim said:

Clouds and/or rain is very tolerable.  I can fish for hours on end in those conditions.

 

Me too. Plus, gray mornings are beautiful. It's a beauty that too many people miss.

 

 

* You guys know I catch a lot of bass, so I have access to more personal data than many anglers, but with all my data, in the end, if you were in my canoe and you asked me, "Where are the bass?", I'd have to admit, "I dunno. Let's try over there." And if we didn't catch any bass "over there," I'd suggest, "Let's try over there." And so on. And you might think, "Swampy's an idiot angler. She's just bungling into bass." Yep.

4 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

It's a beauty that too many people miss.

 

That may be another factor I failed to mention too.  Sunny, warm days often apply more pressure and boating traffic whereas cloudy/rainy days have far less people on the water.

Just now, gim said:

 

That may be another factor I failed to mention too.  Sunny, warm days often apply more pressure and boating traffic whereas cloudy/rainy days have far less people on the water.

 

Agree! When I launch in the rain, I know I'll have the pond to myself. No other anglers making noise. 

I don't think being cloudy is enough. I think that cloud cover needs to be on the leading edge of a front for it to trigger those memorable days of bass feeding up. I think we have one of those and the weather sticks in our minds as "fishy weather" and we just remember the clouds. But a looooot of my worst days have been cloudy days, usually in the days trailing a front. 

8 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

I too can't crack the code.

 

27 minutes ago, DaubsNU1 said:

I have given up trying to crack the code.

Same here

I do switch my fishing techniques according to full sun or over cast days…. On bright sunny days, you’ll get defined shadow lines and places where the fish might be holding.

On overcast days, I believe they are moving and a bit more aggressively hunting. So I tend to brooding my target area on where I put my bait.
Where on the sunny days they are more of an ambush hunter, laying in the shadows and cover, waiting on me to pull my bait by them…

Now I please understand these are just my theories that I have complied during endless hours of slinging bait, and pondering how they think.

I don’t keep logbook, or anything, just my memory which is weak at best.  Haha

 

I’m gonna offer some middle ground thoughts - I think rain and clouds can be BIG time good - *sometimes* - and BIG time bad - *sometimes* - and do virtually nothing to the bite - *sometimes*…..

 

Allow me to expand:

 

Lets say it’s late July and it’s been hot for 14 days straight with no wind getting heavier than 3 mph for more than an hour mid day and you can see shad on the surface dying and the few bass you catch are sore and beat up and skinny.

 

These late summer early fall doldrums - I find - can be completely destroyed by cold rainy fronts that oxygenate the shallow water, wash away harmful algae and scum, wash bugs and terrestrial life into the water and get the creeks flowing and the dam pulling etc - big time fun time.  This time of year especially - I’m always watching for those *cool* rainy fronts that usually signal the beginning of fall - lights out days have been had.

 

Now let’s say it’s mid December and it’s been sunny for 4 days and warming up a bit with very low wind and you’ve been catching fish on jerkbaits and jigs mid day around wood on structure etc - life is good - suddenly a big rainy front that’s all of 38 degrees and windy as all get out wallops the banks you’ve been cleaning up on.  That is some clouds and rain that will surely kill your bite deader than a doorknob.

 

Lets say it’s April and it’s been warming steady for a few weeks at this stage and water temps are a fairly stable 70 ish - you get a week of steady 70 ish degree rain that comes and goes but mostly comes.  The kind where it’s too warm for a jacket and it’s too cool for shorts and a t shirt and it just kinda pitter patters on and on - I find this does absolutely nothing to the bite at these times of years - fish continue going on about their business doing whatever it is they feel like doing.

 

So yeah - it depends.

 

I will simply echo - you can’t catch em if you aren’t casting so get out there and fish - usually that’s the best time to catch them is whenever I can go.

 

 

I think @Pat Brown kind of nailed it. Paying attention to the conditions leading up to a change can be the most important part. 

Low light times, cloudy, or even light rain, is preferable for topwater, which is by far my favorite. But the other pressure and wind conditions can really be a downer to fish. Overcast requires favorable accompanying conditions.

A while back I dropped a little segment on this subject in Brown Bass Tools.

Regarding the smallmouth bass I pursue, I am quite inconsistent in my approach on this matter. 

 

SUNSHINE vs The SMALLMOUTH BASS

Back in Chapter II of this deal, I penned the following paragraph ...

“SMALLMOUTH BASS LOVE FEEDING IN THE SUNSHINE—to disregard this statement will lead to many, many, many fishless trips—over and over and over again.  Can they be caught on cloudy and/orovercast & rainy days? - yes.  But if you want to improve your chances of getting bit—at least some sunshine will always help.”

That was in December 2018.

 

 At the time, I believed in that philosophy very strongly, as so much of my own brown bass results (or lack of) seemed to conclude this was mostly the way to go.

Well, after several more mostly productive seasons on the water and quite a few plus sized brown bass later, I am singing a different tune.

 

Besides some nice smallies, these local lakes are home to big trout, deep-water walleye, pike & muskie.  About half the waters I fish regularly have largemouth as well.  The green bass seem to populate the skinniest water, perhaps out of self-preservation. And when I get a few LMB, there’s rarely any brown bass mixed in with them. This is one reason I have been discouraged from searching for SMB in shallow water very often. Shallow in these instances means less than 5 feet or so.

 

While First and Last light have been eternally productive, I’ve still slipped my Frabil under plenty of good ones with the sun shinning very brightly; all be it usually deeper than 5 feet.  As a retired human, I can pretty much pick & choose when I am and am not on the water.  Once I got over my ‘cloudy skies phobia’, there has been at least as many brown tanks on the scale hooked with a decent layer of cloud cover or even no sunshine at all. In fact, cloudy might even be better for big bass. And don't even get me started about the freaks I've held while it was snowing. 

 

  Either way, the more it happened the more it made me rethink my approach and in a big man way.  As I reflected on all of this, I realized that I needed to adapt my presentations, timing, and especially the locations where I fished to better fit the conditions.  The primary factor has to be that, almost like night fishing, I started finding bigger smallies much shallower than I would have ever believed. 

 

  So the cloudier it would be, the shallower I would fish.  Dark bottom area’s turned out to be just as key as when the sun was shining.  Stealth & long casts became even more important.   

Admittedly, none of this is exactly rocket science.

But it has opened both my eyes as well as my own big brown bass fishing opportunities quite a bit.  Especially when one considers ALL the cloudy/overcast days I spent on the beach when I could have been yanking on trophies.  Frankly, I’m somewhat embarrassed by the whole thing.  #knuckhead  

But that’s how I learn sometimes.

 https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/211811-brown-bass-tools-~-questions-answers/page/8/#findComment-2928027

A-Jay

the sky condition is just ONE factor. It contributes to where and how I decide I'm going to fish but so do; time of year, water temp, pre/post weather, water clarity, where the bait is, fishing pressure etc. 

 

As AJ said, on a cloudy day it may influence me to fish shallower or less covered spaces. If the water is chocolate milk the only thing cloud/sun will influence is what I throw.

 

I've not noticed a difference in catches for better or worse in either condition if I match the rest of it and fish where they are and give them what they want.

 

Both of my biggest bass were on opposite days. One cloudy day and the other crystal clear sky.  

27 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

I will simply echo - you can’t catch em if you aren’t casting so get out there and fish - usually that’s the best time to catch them is whenever I can go.

 

No offense but I hate this cliche.

 

While its true that lots of anglers cannot control when they are able to fish due to other obligations, paying attention to variables like weather and attempting to fish with more ideal conditions if possible no doubt will increase your success.

2 minutes ago, gim said:

 

No offense but I hate this cliche.

 

While its true that lots of anglers cannot control when they are able to fish due to other obligations, paying attention to variables like weather and attempting to fish with more ideal conditions if possible no doubt will increase your success.

 

To each their own!  All it takes is one good cast 👍😎

4 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

To each their own

 

Another cliche I can't stand lol

34 minutes ago, MassYak85 said:

I don't think being cloudy is enough. I think that cloud cover needs to be on the leading edge of a front for it to trigger those memorable days of bass feeding up. I think we have one of those and the weather sticks in our minds as "fishy weather" and we just remember the clouds. But a looooot of my worst days have been cloudy days, usually in the days trailing a front. 

 

^This.^

 

1 hour ago, Swamp Girl said:

Some bass pundits remind me of stock market pundits, always explaining with surety after the fact. You know when the market goes up or down and pundits explain why? Well, if they really know what moves the market up and down, wouldn't they be trillionaires? Same with bass. If there was a person who truly understood why bass move and where they go, wouldn't they be KVD times ten? I'm not talking about general patterns. I think they do apply. I'm talking about being certain about why and where bass move.*

 

Does ^this^ not resonate with anyone, I.e. the stock market pundit/bass pundit comparison? I'm thinking of YouTubers who long arm a bass while they blather about how YOU TOO can catch GIANT BASS just like their three-pounder. If they're so sure about their method, then catch ten more. On camera. Right then and there.

 

Explaining why they caught a bass after the fact doesn't impress me. Explain why you're about to catch bass and then catch one after another, just like a real stock market advisor would explain why you're about to make money and then you would, again and again.

 

If you truly, deeply understand bass (or the stock market), you'll guarantee your coming catch (or stock market profit). Bass and their environments are complicated and the bug/windshield analogy works for me.

 

Fishing with the kid has refreshed my wonder. By "wonder," I don't just mean my state of wonder, which was always pretty hardy, but wondering if this weird thing or that weird thing will work. For example, the kid had a T-rigged soft plastic and while paddling to the next spot, he trolled it. I have never had a YouTuber or even KVD suggest trolling a T-rigged soft plastic, but after seeing the kid catch a bass, I have caught many bass doing the same thing. Another cool thing the kid recently did was asking his dad to beach the canoe and he walked along a point, casting outward. He landed a bucketmouth doing that, whereas I would have been, "Why beach the canoe? We can cast from it."

 

But I think his approach made the difference.

 

2 minutes ago, gim said:

Another cliche I can't stand lol

 

Time for this:

 

Putting the “code” together is not as simple as honing in on one factor I.e. clouds vs sun.  As I have always said when guiding, every day is a new day and if I am going to be successful, I have to put the pieces of the puzzle together to find, pattern and catch fish.  It varies by species and even when you take into account all the puzzle pieces, which are numerous, you also have to take into account how the puzzle pieces affect other puzzle pieces.  That just doubled or tripled  your considerations.  Cloudy before a front, cloudy after a front, sunny with wind, sunny with dead calm, so what I am saying is that the sunny/cloudy factor can be influenced by a lot of other factors and is not a stand alone puzzle piece.😉

Water clarity where I fish is very clear. Overcast days by far have been my better days. Believe the water clarity has something to do with my results. 

 

Disclaimer: I ain't no KVD. 

 

Good Fishing

cloudy>sunny

Something not mentioned and that I think holds true (certainly for me) is the types of baits you fish and fish well.

 

For the first 2 years after I got back into bass fishing, I was heavy on moving baits and chasing active fish.  Blasting down the blank with a bladed jig or topwater looking for actively feeding fish (i find) is going to be more successful on cloudy days.  But if you're adept at throwing bottom baits, plastics, and finesse (I was not at the time) then those sunny days can concentrate the fish in areas of heavier cover and you get into some numbers.  My 3 best days for numbers on my home lakes were all sunny, still days.

I can't explain Josh Alwine's findings.  Maybe people are better at fishing sunny days than they are fishing cloudy days even if they think the fishing is better when it's cloudy.  I get excited about fishing when it's cloudy and overcast.  I can't prove from my fishing logs that I do better on cloudy days.  I don't think cloud cover matters at dusk and dawn.  It matters less when the wind is blowing. I seek out shade or deeper water when it's sunny.   I prefer fishing boat docks when it's sunny.  It's complicated.  All I can say is you have to fish the conditions that are given to you or go home.

Humans will never accept this fact, but it is indeed a fact. Science and data don’t tell you jack when it comes to capturing a fish with rod and reel