Best Baits/colors For Very Dirty Water?

[Osprey39]

I went to fish the lake our club tourney is at next weekend and found the water to be extremely dirty. It wasn't quite what I would call muddy, just really dirty. The water everywhere is pretty shallow as it's a reservoir that's been drawn down to about 4% capacity. Lots of trees, a fair amount of rock structure.

Curious to hear what everyone goes to in that kind of water as far as baits and colors. I only caught one dink on a sexy shad KVD 2.5. I know people are going to say spinnerbaits w/colorado blades but I have very little confidence in them. I rarely ever catch fish on them so what else is good for those conditions.

[msolorio]

when i fish dirty water, i almost always throw black and blue. whether its a jig or plastic, its black and blue. watermelon red works great too because it is a dark bait and the fish get a glimpse of that red flake flashing and go into kill mode. ive thrown a shad colored spinnerbait with double willows and killed em. ive thrown chatterbaits in shad colors, black/blue, and white and chartruese and had good luck. one thing that ive absolutely whacked em on was a black/blue jig with a blue sapphire zoom chunk. dark colors usually work best in stained water but if the fish can "feel" it, they can zero in on it.

[bigbill]

First i know its hard but never feel negative about what your using. I have confidence in every lure.

Ok muddy waters;

Crankbaits----------------------

Using scents a big plus.

Having a rattle another big plus.

Larger sized lure in bright colors fished slow, very slow.

Spinnerbaits---------------------

I install a larger blade one or two sizes up depending on if the spinnerbait can handle it. Most of my success in stained/muddy water has been the indiana blades and the colorado blades upsized of course. I want the max thump i can get

Next is a brighter color like glow chartruese or a bright chartruese skirt. I try to use the larger longer skirt and trim it to properly fit. I don't like the smaller length skirts in stained and muddy waters.

Size spinnerbait thats up to you the larger pattern/ shadow (size wise) given off the better.

Trailer?? I like the mistwister 4" split double tail trailers. There very large and giving off the besty swimming action to me. On the smaller spinner baits i trim the split double tail bodies since the 2" are being discontinued.

Again i have to thank Glenn here he taught me a lot. Thats why my jeep is wrapped with the bass resource decals.

[MN_SONNEN_ANGLER]

If I dont know what color works well in a dirty water lake i always go to a black or blue, more towards the black... especially jig fishing.

[Osprey39]

Bigbill, it's not so much that I don't have confidence in spinnerbaits I guess, it's just that they don't seem to work too well in our lakes. Not for bass anyway. The only time I've ever caught bass on them is when there is a big shad hatch and the shad are popping on the surface. A white spinnerbait run just underneath the surface has produced for me then. Most of the other guys in our club don't use them much either so it's not just my take on it. That said, I did throw one for awhile last weekend with no success but that doesn't mean much because the one fish I caught was the only bite I had all day on anything.

I'm just looking for some alternatives to the spinnerbait. I see black jigs have been mentioned a couple of times. I have plenty of black and blue jigs and plastics. Guess I will put one of those on my jig rod and see how it goes.

[NCbassmaster4Life]

Any kind of dark colors.

[Traveler2586]

First i know its hard but never feel negative about what your using. I have confidence in every lure.

Ok muddy waters;.............

Again i have to thank Glenn here he taught me a lot. Thats why my jeep is wrapped with the bass resource decals.

Good summation, worth printing a copy for your tackle box. This also works on the Potomac and other lowland rivers in the Maryland area.

Is that a real wrap or a bunch of smaller decals, got any pic's??

[Bluebasser86]

These last couple years I've developed a ton of confidence in a all black or black and blue chatterbait in muddy water. It's a dark bait and a pretty big profile that can be reeled pretty slow and steady and has a very hard vibration to help call the fish in. Just caught a 4 and 6 pounder out of a very muddy little lake with a 3/8oz black and blue homemade chatterbait with half a candy bug colored trick worm for a trailer and my buddy lost another big fish on an all black one. Big jigs are a good option too. If I was in a buddy tournament at a lake like that I'd have one guy fishing a jig and the other fishing a chatterbait. A rattling squarebill would be my third choice.

[iceintheveins]

Black and blue jigs with matching trailers, especially with a bulky one. Same colors on Colorado or tandem Spinnerbaits. Don't overlook red or chartreuse lipless cranks, and loud buzzbaits and propbaits.

[Osprey39]

Chatterbaits, I have plenty of those and they seem to work better than spinnerbaits here for whatever reason. I'll have to check and see if I have any black ones though.

[bigbill]

I purchased the decals from here for my side windows and rear window.

[Jake P]

Dark colors like black n blue. I also like charteuse in very dirty water. Crankbaits, jigs, spinnerbaits with colorado blades. Anything that will put off noise and or vibration to draw attention.

[BassinNY]

Black/Blue, Black/Red, Black/Chartreuse and straight Chartreuse are the colors I generally use in those situations. Also for me rattles and Colorado spinnerbaits also do the trick.

[00 mod]

I fish dirty water every week, and this will sum up what works for me.....

Jigs- Black/blue with blue trailer; black/red, with neon red trailer(shhh don't tell anyone else), and PURPLE....I have been whacking them on purple(junebug) lately

Spinnerbaits- All white with a colorado blade, or the terminator "thumper" blade

Crankbaits- Always have a rattle and try and fish them on the bottom

Plastics- dark colors, black/blue, black, red shad, purple, and even green pumpkin

red eye shad- make it have flash(chrome)

And it is probably a confidence thing for me, but I always use a scent

Jeff

[Deleted account]

Depends on where the fish are, and what mood they are in, but If I have less than 6" of vis I like a Hank parker classic spinnerbait bl/chart/wht, an old purple with chart tips stanley jig with a loud green trailer, or all black with a white trailer, a Super Spot with some chart, and a bagley flat b chart/black back. I think its a confidence thing, go with what you trust.