Muddy Pond

[gramps50]

I fish a lot in a acre city park pond not far from me. I can normally go there anytime and at least catch a few small LMB 8-11" range, every once in a while hook into a 16-18" one. The water is rather clear and about 10' deep in the deepest parts. 

 

I live in the Midwest where we got a ton of rain over the last week. Been the a couple of times in between rain drops and the last 2 days now that it has stopped raining. The water now in between murky & muddy. Water temp is probably high 50's to low 60's. For what ever reason the bite has shut off. I get a bite here and there but it's more like they are just pushing it out of the way. Won't come back no matter what I do. Have tried different techniques, different lures & jigs, nothing. It's not just me a friend who fishes there has been having the same issue.

 

Here's my theory, they are use to the clear water and the muddy/murky water just has them all in a funk. The water should clear in a few days so hopefully fishing will resume.

[Catch and Grease]

The fish will be very tight to cover I'm guessing, use baits that give off a lot of vibrations so the bass can find them easily,

[ABW]

Same thing happened here, had luck fishing chartreuse tipped rodent lures by the banks. The fish always seem to hug the banks where I fish.

[Ozark_Basser]

Fish really tight to shore cover if there is any.  If there's grass on the shoreline, fish spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, bladed swimjigs, or whatever else through it while getting your lure to really bang up against that grass.  If there's rocky shorelines fish brighter colored squarebills while banging against the rocks.  Don't neglect topwater either.  A soft bodied frog or a buzzbait could get you a good bite in shallow muddy water.  One thing about muddy water is it can make fish pretty predictable as far as placement.  The strike zone just gets smaller, so really get your baits into that cover.  

[Justin Mott]

Hey man, I feel ya. Any time the water makes a massive change, the fishing can suck. I remember fishing Lake Jordan in early winter a few years back. One week, I caught a 15 lbs stringer fishing aggressively. The next week, a massive rain comes in and the lake turns brown. I then struggled to catch 3 decent bass.

 

Its just the fish being in a bad mood. Given a few days, they will pick back up and get back to feeding. I bet that by tomorrow they will be eating again, even with the muddy water. But we really won't know until you get back out there. If you can, hit the pond again and let us know how it picks up.

 

Justin Mott

[ClackerBuzz]

don't despair b/c it will pick up again. you can make lots of educated decisions about what to cast. i like to cover the top, middle and bottom of the water column. the more i fish the sooner I call it quits on days like ur describing, especially if it's cold outside. i give it my best for 3-4 hrs and quickly head to my favorite restaurant for a hot meal and cold beer   

[Sam]

What Catch and Grease said.

 

They are holding tight to cover and probably in deeper water.

 

Do you have any black plastics?

 

Do you have any chartreuse Spike-It to dye the ends of your plastics?

 

Can you cast way far out into the pond?

 

You may want to try a Carolina rig to get longer casts to deeper water.

 

And stuff a small rattle in your plastics if possible.

 

Now go out and try your luck again.

[gramps50]

The fish will be very tight to cover I'm guessing, use baits that give off a lot of vibrations so the bass can find them easily,

 

As far as I can tell there isn't much cover per say. There are several patches of ***** willows along several points along the bank. The is a fountain out in the middle but don't know how much cover it provides. There is a circle of deep water around it, 10' deep, and a channel going to the other end that is about 7-8' deep. The sides on these are rather steep. Haven't found any other structure so far. Normally I could catch them on the slop just before it leveled out to the shallower water.

 

I'll be back there Monday at the latest and see how it goes, should be cleared up by then.