The bluebird skies of a sunny day can present challenges and advantages for bass fisherman.
Lure color is one factor that can make the biggest difference and help you catch more fish.
By the end of the article, you will know exactly what lure colors you need to use when sunny day bass fishing.
The water visibility is going to be very high on sunny days. This means that fish can see much farther and much clearer below the surface.
The rays of sunlight penetrate deep into the water and reflect off of everything down there just like it does out of the water.
These sunny days give fish very good vision and can make them a bit more careful about what they eat.
When it comes to bright, sunny days, you generally want to use natural and realistic colors.
Because the fish can see very clearly on sunny days, you want to prioritize natural color patterns above high visibility color patterns.
When bass can clearly see their target prey, they are more likely to see something they don’t like or that doesn’t look real.
Using super flashy, or contrasting, or eye catching colors are not realistic presentations.
These colors will spook bass or just simply not convince them that your lure is worth eating.
Also Read: Best Color Lures for Cloudy Days
Bluegills are the most universal and consistent forage of bass around the world.
Any lake, pond, or river that has bass in it will also have bluegill or other sunfish species that they are feeding on.
These sunfish also hang around the same areas of the water as the bass, meaning bass never have to look very hard to find them.
So throughout the whole year, bluegill and sunfish are the #1 forage of bass.
On sunny days, the more realistic the pattern the better.
There are limitless variations of sunfish patterns, so try to use lure colors that are closest to the exact sunfish in your lake.
Bass often use sunny days to hunt down shallow sunfish, so this color tends to work best in shallow water.
Also Read: Best Bluegill Swimbaits
Not all bodies of water have shad. But if your lake has shad in it, you can never go wrong throwing a shad pattern on sunny days.
Shad usually hangout in a bit deeper water away from the bank. If bass are a bit deeper or suspending in open water, shad imitations are hard to beat.
One good thing about shad colors is that shad all look more or less the same.
There are size differences from lake to lake, but the colors are going to be the same.
So for the most part, all the shad colored lures are mimicking the same thing. This makes matching the hatch easier.
Crawfish are similar to bluegill in that you are going to find crawfish in almost any body of water.
There are some exceptions when fishing up north, but if there are bass, there are going to be crawfish.
Depending on the time of year and geographical location, crawfish are going to to be different colors.
Their color is going to range from a bright, blood red and a dull, brown.
It can be hard to identify the exact color of the crawfish in your lake, so testing out a few different craw patterns is smart.
With that being said, you can’t go wrong with a brown back, red body color pattern.
Crawfish colors and imitations will work best around rocks because rocks are the preferred habitat of crawfish.
During the winter months, bass in small ponds will swim up into shallow rocks on very sunny days.
The sun warms up the rocks along with the surrounding water. Crawfish colors work better than anything else for these bass.
Baby bass is a very underrated color pattern. You actually don’t see anglers using baby bass colors very often.
Bass are certainly cannibalistic and gorge on baby bass. Less than 10 percent of bass born each spring survive until the end of the year.
This means over 90 percent of these baby bass are eaten. And older bass are their number one predator.
Baby bass colors work best during the post-spawn and summer months. These are the only months where baby bass even exist.
Once the fall rolls around, all the baby bass have either grown up or been eaten.
Baby bass colors seem to work especially well on sunny days.
One reason for this is that juvenile bass are not very smart and will swim around in open, unsafe water even on sunny days, making them an easy target.
The best lures for baby bass colors are things like swimbaits, crankbaits, and jerkbaits that accurately mimic the profile and swimming action of an actual baby bass.
Top waters are a bit different from other lures. Because bass have to look up into the sun towards your lure, they can’t get a great look at it.
Natural colors are not always very visible against the bright sun and sky.
You may have noticed, but most lure colors have a white bottom.
This blends right into the sky and makes it hard for bass to see and eat your lure.
Black is really the only top water color I will use on a very sunny day.
During the mornings and evenings, I will change it up and use more natural colors, but when the sun is high is the sky, I throw black.
If you don’t have any black top waters, at least use dark colors. The darker the better because it contrasts the bright sun.
Because the sun is shining down into the bass’s eyes, they can’t get a great look at it, so lure colors don’t have to be as natural.
This is a tuff position. The bright sun increases water visibility, but the muddy water decreases visibility.
From deductive reasoning, the best colors will be natural/bright or natural/dark colors.
The bright colors will reflect more light making it easier for bass to see. And dark colors will create a clearer contrast and silhouette, making it easier for bass to see.
You need high visibility because of the muddy water. But your colors should also be natural because of the bright sun.
Also Read: Best Lure Colors for Smallmouth Bass
For the most part, you want to be using realistic colors on sunny days. The more light that goes into the water, the more picky the bass will be.
Things like water clarity, time of year, forage, and other factors can help really dial in your color selection.
But the 5 colors listed above will get you through any sunny day fishing trip with success.
Also consider getting a sun protection fishing shirt if you are spending lots of time fishing under the hot sun.
Remember that experience is the best teacher. So get out there and learn something.
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