Prime smallmouth season is near

[Dillar Dog]

Can't wait to go crush them.

[Dillar Dog]

Good.

More for me.

[hogbud]

Thought they liked sunny days?

[Dillar Dog]

Thought they liked sunny days?

I don't mean tomorrow.  More like next month.

[BroyledNutts]

Thought they liked sunny days?

Since Smallmouth are natural territorial predators, they tend to spend a lot of time looking up for a meal - cloudy skies provide a matte background on which to highlight prey. Sunny skies make it more difficult to do that, and seem to make fish shy away in bright skies - much like it hurts us to look into the sun, so it affects them.

Heavy cloud cover seem to stimulate smallies to become aggressive and feed up in the water column. By contrast, bright sun seems to motivate smallies to feed low in the water column, or on bottom. Typically smallmouth shut off in bright mid-day sun, seeking shady places to lurk, and pic it up again as the sun sets, or in the early morning hours. 

Just what I've experienced fishing impoundments, or larger rivers.