Thread: Sunny vs cloudy winter pattern

I don't really know if bait is more scattered on cloudy days or not. From my experience, the fish are generally more active on cloudy days. Sunny, blue sky days seem to result in slower trips for me. Especially if there is no wind. This is especially the case from my experience perch fishing. Crappie fishing it seems the fish are shallower in the water column on cloudy days or low light conditions. Sun drives the fish deeper and to cover. Not really an answer to your question but a few thoughts.

A buddy introduced me to perch fishing years ago on a cold February day at Lake Monticello. We were fishing on the bottom at a submerged island 35' deep, surrounded by 40-55 FOW. He had picked today because it was forecast to be cloudy, which he said was crucial for perch fishing. We caught fish steadily until about 11 and the sun came out. He said that would kill the bite, and sure enough it did. Now understanding how sun or clouds affect fish that are hugging the bottom in 35 FOW is beyond me, but it apparently made a difference.

Can't say quite as much about crappie but for perch and stripers my least favorite day is a sunny windless day...like we had yesterday. Yesterday, perch and striper fishing was the worst it has been all winter for me. We even netted some threadfins and the perch wouldn't touch them. Normally that would have been a feeding frenzy.

But for the crappie fishing I do which is docks and brushpiles, I much prefer a sunny day. I usually don’t even bother with my brush piles if it isn’t sunny because the fish are rarely on them. So I can see how someone fishing more open water would much prefer a cloudy day for crappie. I guess the question I need to be asking myself is why didn’t I try some of those threadfin around a few brush piles to see if I could get a jumbo crappie to eat.

Edit

Exactly as was stated. Cloudy days are better for tightlining and trolling for crappie as the fish are more active throughout the water column. If fishing structure, be it docks, brush, or grass, sunny days are far better.

Agree with Inkdabber'
LittleJohn

I’m guessing in winter it’s better sunny. You want the bait schools tight so the Crappie are tight. The channels are the structure.
I can go on a sunny day or cloudy but not both
Thanks


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