Help With Water Clarity

[Rhino68W]

I am a bank fisherman and I am guilty of believing that the pond I fish at has nice clear water. When in reality, I might have 3 feet of visibility from the bank down into some large rocks. I recently found another pond even closer to my house that has at least 6 feet visibility. I do not have any polarized lenses yet, and I soon hope to change that. 

I literally started jig fishing yesterday, and have yet to catch one. I went in the 6 foot visibility lake and used a nice brown and orange jig with natural craw trailer. 

 

My question is, should I use lures more geared for murky water or clear water?

 

Also, how can I become a better judge on how clear/murky water truly is. 

 

[Catch and Grease]

One person may think a lake with 4 foot visibility is clear while another may think 10ft+ visibility is clear, use lures you believe will produce well in your situation.

[gulfcaptain]

Get some glasses, even cheap polarized are better then nothing.  You will be suprised at what you can see.  Will help you see cover and details you are missing without them. And your jig colors are pretty basic, I would also add a black/blue and green pumpkin candy color jigs to your collection.  Both seem to produce better in the water clarity you have atleast for me. But I would call your waters stained. But it is all relevent to where you live if you have deep lakes with 20+ feet of vis. 

[Rhino68W]

I've been saving up for some good Wiley X polarized. But I probably should go get some Cheapos!

[BobP]

Most guys consider visibility of more than 5 ft "clear".  Visibility of 1-5 ft is "stained" and visibility less than 1 ft is "muddy".  Officially, clarity is determined with a secchi disk (a disk with alternating white and black sections) which is lowered to a depth at which it disappears to the naked eye.  Most tournament fishermen consider stained water the best clarity for bass fishing.  Clear water is tougher since bass get too good a look at lures and muddy water is toughest.  Bass have better sight than humans under water and a general rule of thumb is that they distinguish shapes 3X farther than the depth that a secchi disk disappears.