Middle of the Day Bass Fishing: Best Approaches & 10 Tips

Leave a comment after this article about how you do fishing for bass midday. I’d love to read your feedback.

Many bass anglers try to fish early mornings and late afternoons for bass because they haven’t much luck during the middle of the day. Bass fishing can be really good near sunrise and sunset but the middle of the day can be awesome if you go about it with intention.

Too many recreational fishermen try to catch bass during the middle of the day because that’s the only time they can fish and they lack the direction needed.

Is midday bass fishing any good? Fishing for bass in the middle of the day requires a more finesse-approach to fishing than other times of day but you can catch some of the biggest bass during this window since big bass will take advantage of full-sunlight to better locate and attack prey items.

The trick is to slow your approach way down and use more realistic-looking baits since bass can better see them and note any imperfections.

In this article, we will cover the full-range of midday bass fishing to include under sunny skies, cloudy skies, overcast skies, and rain events. We will also tackle midday bass fishing in every season, give you proven tips, and tell you the best baits to pick.

Please check out this very helpful guide to the best times to fish for bass. It contains a ton of helpful information about the best seasons for bass fishing, how bass fishing changes throughout the day, and tips for bass fishing times.

Bass Fishing in the Middle of the Day

How to Bass Fish in Midday

For the most part, the best way to catch bass during the middle of the day is by using a more finessed approach. Instead of casting aggressive moving baits, I recommend identifying key cover like logs and rocks and dropping soft plastic baits and jigs alongside it tight. Jig and drag these baits along very slowly.

Frog baits can also be really good during the middle of the day I deeper water with fallen trees and lily pads. Overcast days call for more aggressive moving baits during the middle of the day which I will discuss in the next section.

Overcast & Cloudy Early Afternoons

Overcast and cloudy conditions will make most of the bass ditch their cover where they lie in the shade when it’s sunny out in favor of roaming for prey to eat. The reduced sunlight and cooler temperatures with overcast days puts bass into a more spot-and-stock approach to feeding. It also allows bass to sneak up on prey without being seen.

Bass will be in ambush mode when it’s cloudy out so your best bet is to give them baits they can ambush. Cast moving baits like spinnerbaits, frogs, and chatterbaits and wait for aggressive strikes.

Overcast and cloudy midday windows can be some really great fishing for bass and worth your time for sure. For a complete guide to bass fishing on cloudy and overcast days, check out this article I wrote.

Click here to learn about how to catch bass in the afternoon and evening. You may also be interested in learning if bass are bottom feeders.

How Bass React to Midday Fishing: By Season

Spring

In the spring, bass will be focused on spawning and guarding their nest and eggs against intruders. Bass won’t care if you are pestering their beds early morning or midday. They will aggressively attack-to-kill your bait all day long.

The only difference is that during the middle of the day, bass may be resting under the shade near their nest and only emerge once an intruder (your bait) enters it looking to cause trouble. If you catch one bass off a particularly bed, cast back at it and you may catch the other parent.

Summer

In summer, the middle of the day can be extremely slow fishing if you aren’t guided by a solid plan of attack. Midday bass will want to be fished very slow with finesse baits like worms, jigs, and deep-diving cranks.

While most small and medium-sized bass will prefer to hunt in the early morning and late afternoon, some supersized female bass will hunt heavily during the middle of the day. Midday allows huge females the ability to see the full range of color and hide in the shadows out of site of their well-lit prey.

Fish these bass with very realistic looking lures or with live bait. Since the water is so well-lit, sharp-eyed bass will be able to see any imperfection in lures you can get away with in water that is less well illuminated.

Fall

In the fall, bass really key in on shad in a lot of reservoirs and rivers to put on serious fat stores in preparation for the leaner winter months.

The middle of the day can be really good for these fall bass as the dropping water temperatures will make bass less-reliant upon on shade and more likely to roam about in search of food.

You can catch bass now on moving baits like crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and swimbaits, as well as more finesse approaches like plastic worms and jigs. Experiment with various lure-types and approaches until bass tell you how they like it. To learn the best time of day to catch largemouth bass, please check out this helpful article.

Winter

Down south where lakes don’t freeze over, bass fishing can be quite slow in the middle of the day but heat up in the mid-to-late afternoon as well as the mid-to-late afternoon timeframe.

Up north, ice fishing can actually be the best during the middle of the day as bass will be desperately waiting for the water to warm up even by a couple of degrees to stir up baitfish and trigger their own feeding instincts.

Big Bass Can Bite Best During Middle of Day

Most bass anglers including myself will tell you the best time of day to catch bass is early in the morning and late in the afternoon. Bass seem to really do well in the reduced-light where they can see their prey items very well but most prey species cannot spot them as well.

But when it comes to big bass, it seems there is quite a bit of reason to believe that big bass actually prefer to hunt their prey in the middle of the day. Many people catch their biggest bass in the midday heat. These times of day feature brighter lights which fully illuminate the prey items for bass.

Big bass will hide in the darkness of the shadows and be unseen by their prey. These are excellent times for big bass to launch ambush attacks.

The trick to catching big bass during the middle of the day is to use very realistic baits as bass can really see imperfections and cheesy-looking lures with all the available sunlight.

Live bait is also very good to use now including bluegill and golden shiners. Want to learn more about the best time of day for bass fishing? Check out this article on the best time to catch bass during all four seasons.

Best Baits for Sunny Midday Fishing

1. Frogs

Frogs are great summer bass baits, rain or shine. To fish frogs in the middle of the day, head out to deeper cover like trees or lily pads in water 8 to 20-feet deep. Fish the Frogs pretty slowly.

2. Walking Baits (Spooks)

These slow-moving topwater baits can be deadly for midday bass in sunny conditions. Bass will key into these baits as long as they have shade to launch their attacks from.

3. Deep Crankbait

It’s no secret that bass will like to be in deeper, cooler water during the heat of the day. To get down to these bass with moving baits, I recommend casting or even trolling a deep-diving crank.

4. Curly Tail Worm

You can fish these worms with Carolina rigs or Texas rigs. You can also use a football-weight jig and drag the worm along the bottom for good midday bass fishing.

5. Long Paddle-Tail Worm

Summertime bass love big baits and these long worms really draw in big bass who will be a bit more sluggish during the middle of the day. Fish these worms Texas-rigged which will allow the long tail to suspend off the bottom and appeal to bass.

Best Baits for Cloud/Overcast Midday Fishing

1. Spinnerbait

Dark-colored spinnerbaits can be deadly for midday bass when the conditions are overcast or cloudy. Darker colors will contrast well for bass to see against the gray backdrop. The spinnerbait will mimic baitfish fleeing and bass will want to ambush them.

2. Chatterbait

Chatterbaits produce a ton of great noise and water displacement which will enable bass to zero in on the bait even if they can’t see it in the cloudier water. This moving bait will also work well in sunnier conditions but really shines before rain events.

3. Frog

Frogs are awesome any time of day during the summer but can really do well in the middle of the day. Head to lily pads and downed timber in water 8 to 20-feet deep for the best action. If conditions are overcast or cloudy, even better.

4. Square-Bill Crankbait

These deep-diving crankbaits are best dug right into the bottom near rocks. Really grind the lip of the bait right in the bottom as you reel it in.

During the middle of the day, this can be awesome near rocks. Use fluorocarbon to get the bait down deep since this line-type sinks naturally.

5. Popper

This is great for long-casts with lighter braid. Dip your rod tip down to pop the bait. This will increase the amount of water displacement and make the pop louder which is great when conditions are cloudy.

Frogs & Midday Fishing

Frogs are one of the best bass baits during the late spring through early fall timeframe. They are especially deadly during the summer.

Midday frogging can really catch a lot of nice bass as long as you approach it right. For late mornings, fish closer to shore along grass and edges. By midday, head to deeper water where there are deeper pads or fallen timber.

Tie on heavy braid (at least 50-pound test) and slowly fish those frogs around the cover. You will need the heavy braid to get the fish to the boat. With anything less, you will break off fish in the wood.

Rain Events During the Middle of the Day

Rain can really cause bass fishing to improve especially if it occurs during a hot day. Rain brings about dropping temperatures, stirred up nutrients, and reduced-light conditions which can make bass more aggressive.

Dropping barometric pressure before rain will always cause good fishing and the reduced temperatures mean bass will be roaming in search of prey to ambush.

Before and during rain, cast moving baits like spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, square-bill cranks, and swimbaits to elicit aggressive bites from hungry bass. Bass fishing tends to slow way down once the rain has ended. After the rain ends, move to a slower, bottom-jigging method with soft plastics near cover.

10 Tips for Midday Bass

1. Try Out Bridge Pillars

Bass will often times head to deeper water where the water is much cooler and less affected by bright sunlight during the middle of the day.

A great place to try fishing are bridge pillars as these offer current breaks, shade, cooler water, and great ambush sites for hungry bass during summer. You can fish these bass a number of ways but I find a finesse approach works best.

Go with a plastic worm, Senkos, or jig for great deeper-water bass action. Don’t ever bi-pass bridges as these can offer tremendous opportunities for quality bass during the dead of summer. Shad also linger here which bass love eating.

2. Fish Overhanging Cover

A great place to check for midday bass is under overhanging trees and bushes along steep banks. The topography of the land around a lake is very telling for how deep and steep the water along the bank is. Look for a steep bank which indicates deeper water right by the shore.

If you see trees fallen into the water or hanging over the water providing good shade, this is an excellent spot to fish. Wood piles are another great spot to check. Fish these locations fairly slowly with shaky-heads or plastic worms.

3. Fish Soft Plastics Down Deep

On very hot, sunny days, many bass will move away from the bank where they may spend the early morning hours hunting frogs and bluegill. By early afternoon, the water along the shallow banks is too warm and the sun too bright for bass to live there comfortably. Find the nearest deeper water containing any kind of cover such as brush piles, submerged wood, weeds, or rocks.

Bass will head here in search shad and will grab onto soft plastics jigged here with Carolina or Texas rigs. You can try worms, craws, or salamanders.

4. Try Square Bill Crankbaits Along Rocks

There is perhaps no better bass bait along rocks than a square bill crankbait. These baits are designed to be fished tight to the rocks and target bass suspended off the rocks looking to pin baitfish like shad and shiners against the rocks to eat them.

This approach works great just about all year-long but I like it especially in the fall. The trick is to really dig that bait into the bottom so it’s bill rinds up bits of mud and debris from the rock.

Bass can’t resist this presentation. As far as fishing line goes, I recommend wholeheartedly fluorocarbon since it naturally sinks.

Braid is not a great choice as it will float and make it harder for your bait to hit the bottom. You can catch bass using this method in the middle of the day on both clear sunny days as well as overcast, cloudy days.

5. Fish Hard When Clouds Roll In

Cloud cover and overcast conditions can really spike up bass activity. On sunny, clear-sky days, bass will be tightly associated with cover where they rest in the shade away from the bright sunlight.

But on days with cloudy or overcast conditions, the reduced-light and cooling conditions mean bass can roam freely and hunt actively for food items. In reduced clarity water, bass can approach food without being spotted.

Bass are in ambush mode and should be fished for using moving baits to elicit predatory responses. Bass will favor moving baits and it will allow you to cover a lot more water.

6. Look for Froggy Areas

Anytime you roll up to a portion of the lake that looks “froggy”, start casting frog baits. If you find deeper lily pads or fallen or floating logs, these are great places to try throwing frog baits.

Also, if you find steep banks with grasses along the bank, these can also hold frogs and bass near shore during midday.

7. Watch Your Frog Carefully

When fishing frogs during the middle of the day, keep a close eye on your frog. Bass can bite very subtly during this time of day on frogs.

Sometimes, they may just suck down the frog without a splash. You will need to watch carefully to be ready for the hookset before the frog is spat back out.

8. Use Braid for Heavy Cover

Braid is the strongest fishing line out there but it can cut if it comes in contact with wood or rock due to its thin diameter. But when it comes to fishing thick wood, use heavy braid. By using braid 50-pount test or greater, the diameter will be thick enough to not cut with wood.

Braid is what you will need to horse big bass out of heavy cover. No other fishing line can offer this assurance you’ll get your bass to the boat than braid.

9. Fish Old Road Beds in New Lakes

In new lakes, flooded plains where old roadbeds are located can hold a lot of good bass fishing during the middle of the day. These hard-bottom channels can attract baitfish and bass. They often dead trees and stumps nearby which also hold a lot of bass.

10. Fish Laid Down Trees

If you find down trees in deeper water, try fishing weedless baits vertically between the branches of the tree. Bass will be among the branches but bigger bass will be near the trunk itself. Slowly work your baits down and up through all the branches and pay close attention to bump you feel.