I left work a bit early yesterday, bank fishing my favorite cove on the local reservoir late afternoon through early evening.  The sky stayed overcast the whole time, the water had virtually no surface disturbance and looked pretty stained.

I pulled in one largemouth, about 2 pounds, on a Mepps original inline shortly after I got there.  Of course I hung up and broke off right after that...

As the sun dropped more I started seeing bass breaking the surface regularly, all right along the creek bed as the cove widened.  Looking forward to some topwater action I started tossing a Pop-R, but they didn't want anything to do with it.  After remembering reading that still-water situations make for tough topwater fishing I tried a spinnerbait just under the surface, and twitching a floating Rapala in as many different rythms as I could, but still got no takers.

Just hoping someone can help me figure this out... what would you have thrown?

I would use a jerkbait, spinnerbait, or trap. (I am not an inline spinner fan) Some days even when conditions scream topwater for what ever reason bass will not hit it you gotta dig a little deeper. A lot of times you can just change the style of topwater and that will trigger them other times they are not active enough to hit topwater. I fished a lake one time early morning overcast and the bass would not hit topwater even though they where slamming bait. I ended up throwing a diamond shad and caught 30+ fish. Sometimes they are just in a different mood even when the signs show topwater.

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the Forum.

I like to use a Spook in that situation. Sometimes the walking type baits work when the others won't. Good luck.

Anytime I see aggressive surface feeding I forget target-specific topwaters like Pop-R and go to a double-bladed buzzbait with trailer hook. If that's too fast I drop down to a quieter buzzbait, then put on a 3/4 oz Zara Spook to attract the largest most aggressive bass first with "walk the dog". Color-wise for cloudy sky I'll go with a black belly rather than the usual white or pearly belly. What colors are on top rarely ever make a difference since bass are looking up. If no takers on the big Spook I'll drop on down to a Baby Spook fished "walk the dog", or if large bass are present I'll often put a Smithwick Devil's Horse on and rip it a couple feet after touching down, pause it a moment then start jerking through the activity zone.

Jim

I'm wondering if you were seeing bass or bream.  Bluegills are notorious for plucking the bugs off the surface at dusk.  Sometimes they can make a pretty good splash.

Welcome to the forum.  This is a great place to learn and share.

It may also be a situation where the bass are chasing minnows from a lower depth up to the the top.

I'm wondering if you were seeing bass or bream. Bluegills are notorious for plucking the bugs off the surface at dusk. Sometimes they can make a pretty good splash.

Welcome to the forum. This is a great place to learn and share.

They could also have been carp...I spent the better part of 2 hrs casting a splashes a while back, and never got a hit.  The guy at the tackle shop told me afterwards that there was a bunch of carp in that pond...drove me nuts...

I'm wondering if you were seeing bass or bream.  Bluegills are notorious for plucking the bugs off the surface at dusk.  

That is what I was thinking too. I started carrying my flyrod with me for times like this. You'd find out real quick what they are. If they are bream, I'd bet the bass would be hanging close by and eating them.

I'm wondering if you were seeing bass or bream.  Bluegills are notorious for plucking the bugs off the surface at dusk.  Sometimes they can make a pretty good splash.

Welcome to the forum.  This is a great place to learn and share.

Well I suppose some of them might have been bream, but I certainly saw some nice bass leaping fully out of the water... Typically when I see bream feeding on top they make a small "pop" and a little splash as they slurp bugs from the surface, but these fish were definately coming up out of the water.

I did find it strange that I kept seeing the large fish feeding but none of the small swirls and splashes I expect from smaller fish feeding or schooling.  The activity seemed to follow the creek bed pretty closely, so perhaps I did see bass chasing the smaller fish from below.

Guess I just need to get back out there.  Thanks everyone!

are you positive they are bass. because here in a pond i fish in NY just before sunset and during it (around 6:35-8:00?) i see all these fish boiling. at first i didn't know what they were. then while throwing a tuny jerkbait i caught a whole mess of crappie. so i'm basically certain that every boil is crappie. plus the water is clear so when they first start boiling and you still have a little sunlight i can see 10-20 of them schooling but i never catch that many....lol