Are Bass Sensitive To Sunlight? (Fact or Fiction)

There is a common myth that bass are sensitive to sunlight and that they hang out near cover, logs, weeds or go deep to get away from the sun because they have no eyelids.

This is probably not the truth, although since we can’t actually ask them, all we can do is speculate.

The truth probably is more instinctual.  What I mean is, they go where they need to go to either conserve energy, warm up their metabolism and eat.  Sometimes, they will move toward sunny, shallow water because it is warmer and that is often where food is.  If it is too warm, the oxygen gets depleted, baitfish and other edible treats move away so the bass have no reason to be there.

The other factor is that bass prefer to be able to ambush their prey and having cover can help them do this.  Bass seem to like hanging around stuff. If there are no weeds or rocks or logs, check out what Kevin Van Dam says they do…

Dark objects give them a sense of security and an area from which they can hide when looking for food. I’ve seen them hold on the darndest objects, like a piece of floating weed out in the middle of the lake or on a single small rock lying on a sand flat. (That’s especially true of smallmouth and spotted bass; it takes less cover to hold them than it does a largemouth).  As bass get older they look for the best type of cover, but if the area lacks the traditional hideouts, such as wood, rocks or weeds, they will use whatever is available.  Source

Very interesting stuff. KVD also tells a story about when bass are put in a plain white bathtub, they keep moving around but when a small stone is placed in there, they congregate around it.  Instincts are amazing things!

One last thing to keep in mind is that even if there is awesome cover that looks like it has to hold fish, if there is no food there for smallmouth bass, it is unlikely you will catch them, even if it is the fishiest looking spot and you made the perfect cast.

Tell me the weirdest “cover” object you have seen in your fishing career in the comments section below.