Fishing the shade.

[Red Childress]

We have had some super sunny and flat calm weekends (beautiful but not traditional weather for good fishing in my neck of the woods) and I have been trying to chase the 'shady side' of the river just to see what happens. In a 13 mile stretch of water, that might only mean 3-4 areas but that has been my focus lately. The results have been interesting to say the least. All the fish we have caught the past 3-4 weekends in these conditions have been in the shade whether it be trout, walleye, muskies or pike.

As soon as the sun gets low enough to cast shade on other good spots, those spots have fired up as well. When the wind is blowing, it is a much different story most of the time. When fishing flat/sunny conditions, especially in clear water, you might want to find some shade if you can.

[esox31]

I used to fish the shade lines on mahoning creek dam when we were in an area without any rocks or standing timber It seemed to work well back then . I have always wanted to drift fish that "lake" during deer season with gun ready on the seat . I always seen more deer there than muskies I haven't been there in years .

Lance McFeely
"THE FERD"

[toothyfishman]

I thought with a future as bright as yours you always wore shades!!! :D

I've always does well even with just an overhanging tree that put shade on the water even on the sunny side. Shade does produce.

[lowbidder]

I've usually found the same to be true... except for last Friday. The section of the river I fished was fairly narrow, so I fished right down the middle casting in a 270 degree arc. It was a sunny day, but only half of the water was in the sun due to the sun dropping in the sky this time of year. I would say I gave a roughly equal number of casts to both the sun and the shade.

I ended up having 1 strike, 2 follows and 1 "sighting" of an inactive fish. All four fish came from the sunny side of the river.

I believe it was because the temperature of the water dropped quickly the week before and the fish were trying to warm up on the rocky structure. It definitely was not the quality of the structure, because the structure is much better in the shady side of the river and typically the action comes from that side.

Just when you think you got 'em figured out...