Sunfish near the top

[st.crioxfishin]

As I was doing some searching on this site about fishing deep I found a post about something that I see quite often in the summer months around deep points. It was a post by Deitz about why sunfish suspend near the surface over deep water at certain times. Deitz you were saying that there is a reason that sunfish are being pushed to the surface. (you may or may not remember posting this, it was awhile ago) You were saying this is a 'tell sign' of something being below them. I see this all the time (saw it today on mntka actually) in the summer and have never been able to catch anything around or under these baitfish. Is this truly a sign that fish are under these baitfish pushing them to the surface, and if so, what presentations can be used to catch them? Anyone feel free to chime in, hopefully this question makes sense.

[MNBassGuy]

If you were on Tonka, then you saw this for sure. I see this CONSTANTLY on Tonka. Huge schools of sunfish at the surface. It seems like thousands sometimes!

What I try to do its look for scattering fish for a tell-tale sign that something is pushing them up. If you don't know what I mean by that, I'm referring to when you see about 50 fish squirl on the surface all at once. I have found, especially on Tonka, that when you see that consistantly in one area there tends to be fish chasing those sunnies. In fact, I was on a pattern in a tourney on Tonka last year in which I was casting a wacky Senko into the middle of schools of suspended sunnies and just letting it fall.

As far as what to throw, I've had success with the aforementioned Senko trick, but I've also done well with drop shots, other weightless plastics, crankbaits, and spinnerbaits. I've even gotten bit on topwater, which is always fun!

The main thing is to experiment with different types of presentations. Pay attention to how the sunnies or other baitfish are acting and try to relate that to any sort of bite you are getting. It's like anything else, there is no hard and fast rule, but I can tell you that when I see a school of sunnies I almost always cast something in the middle of it!

[pfluemis]

Quote:

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As I was doing some searching on this site about fishing deep I found a post about something that I see quite often in the summer months around deep points. It was a post by Deitz about why sunfish suspend near the surface over deep water at certain times. Deitz you were saying that there is a reason that sunfish are being pushed to the surface. (you may or may not remember posting this, it was awhile ago) You were saying this is a 'tell sign' of something being below them. I see this all the time (saw it today on mntka actually) in the summer and have never been able to catch anything around or under these baitfish. Is this truly a sign that fish are under these baitfish pushing them to the surface, and if so, what presentations can be used to catch them? Anyone feel free to chime in, hopefully this question makes sense.

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Vertical jigging at about 15-20' yesterday on a drop off and getting "tugs" from sunnies. Switched over to sunfish lures for awhile and pulled some up. Then finally the Bass bite came and the sunnies moved up. Did that until near sunset, then moved to the shallows and pulled a lot of good size (for that lake) LM's in.

[Wayne Ek]

You see this quite often this time of year. If the water is calm (no wind ripples) you can see small pods of very small fry (1/4 inches or smaller) moving just under the surface. These pods of fry pull the sunfish and small bass to the surface to feed, the larger fish follow the small sunfish and bass ( to feed ) My guess is that the fry are feeding on plankton.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I stick behind my comments. There are only 2 reasons for those fish to be near the surface. Food for themselves, or trying not to be food for something else. It can be difficult tofish, but I have caught a ton of fish, fishing this pattern. Use lures that you will not get hit by the pannies.. so often times a slow moving plastic worm is not a good choice. Jigs, cranks, spinnerbaits, fast sinking plastics. Eventually you if you keep at it, you will catch fish on these areas.

[bassNspear]

We fished this pattern all day today, and found alot of fish. Your right dietz, we were using jigs so the sunnies would not go for the bait. Unless they were HAWGS. We had a great day, where we were site fishing some fish, and hitting weedlines for others. All in all, great day.

[st.crioxfishin]

Thanks for the input guys!

[grab the net]

In-fisherman did an article on this some time ago. Keying on schools of sunfish at the surface. Same premise as the other posters, usually predators (bass) below. If I recall correctly they (I think it was Al and Jimmy) recommended topwater and or cranks to trigger the fish below. I have had some success at different times with this situation. I certainly try it each time I see it.

[st.crioxfishin]

I've had luck fishing topwater over these schools in lowlight periods, just never during midday. Last week at my cabin I caught 4 in a row on a zara spook over 14 FOW at 6 a.m. That was pretty wild..