Fishing In Concentrated Chocolate Milk

[riggedup]

Greetings from Nebraska. Due to the 11"of rain that fell overnight a couple of days ago, our water quality has the consistency of concentrated chocolate milk. I realize this is a temporary problem, but, how does one go about fishing with these conditions? Yesterday, water viability was less than 1". Am I wasting my time?

[CJ]

Less than 1 in. vis, WOW! We are along way from each other but one thing fish do around here is get right on the bank. Usually steep and rocky banks. Not that all the fish will go there but that seems to be where they are catchable.

[scaleface]

Use slow baits that move a lot of water like a jig and pig or large colorado blade spinnerbait . Ive fished in water like that a lot. 

[Bluebasser86]

Fish will usually move shallow and hug very tight to cover. Bulky baits in either bright or solid, dark colors (rattles and strong vibration doesn't hurt), seem to work best. It will often take multiple cast to a target to trigger a fish to bite. Sometimes it takes a day or two for fish to adjust to newly muddied water. 

[Catch and Grease]

Can bedding panfish like bream also muddy up water? One small lake I fish has gotten pretty muddy but we haven't had a lot of rain or really windy weather, the only thing I could thing of it there are a ton of bedding bream right now all over the lake...

[fisherrw]

Use something twith a ton of color. And that's big

[Trenton]

One of my favorite lakes is almost always stained bc about 10 years ago they did a giant weed kill for whatever reason and it became a 540 acre mud hole. Now a days the weeds are slowly coming back and there's some visibility but we slam them on black and blue and chartuse all depends on the day time conditions. Spinnerbaits are always good, and square bill cranks I started using the storm arashi this year I've had some luck on them. But like bluebasser said it usually takes a few days for them to get used to that big of a change.

[Choporoz]

I like blacks and whites.  I also think dipping tails/claws in chartreuse JJ's helps.

[Turtle135]

It is tougher fishing if the bass are not used to low visibility conditions. I start off with a big jig and trailer (black & blue) and cast right into the middle of any hard cover I can find. For example on a laydown I will try to bump the jig into as many branches as possible.

[IndyGlockMan]

Try a black/blue jig with craw trailer.  Rattles are a plus.  

I fished in a pond near here yesterday with very stirred up muddy water.

Caught 2 descent bass in 30 minutes about 4-5 feet from shore with that jig.

The dirtier the water, the darker the color (most of the time)

[Preytorien]

While Indiana hasn't seen 11 inches of rain this year, we do have enough rain/runoff to severely muddy up some of my favorite ponds/lakes. This is when I do my own personal checklist to figure out what to throw

 

Bass seem to use one/combination/all of three of their abilities to hunt food. Sight (their advanced underwater eyesight), Smell (or taste or whatever), Vibration (like "hearing" with their lateral line)

 

When I get to a body of water I assess the water to determine the most probable form of navigation and food detection they'll use, then tailor my lure to appeal to the likely most dominant form of detection. In super gin-clear water, they're likely to use sight as a considerably larger portion of their detection methods, so I'll pay close attention to "match the hatch". In extremely muddy water, they're likely only able to rely on their lateral line as their primary detection method, maybe eyesight as a secondary form.  

 

So in your case, and mine some of the time this year, muddy water would call for something that makes a helicopter engine feel like a small tap. Use something that straight up massages your arm as you're reeling it in. I use a black/blue chatterbait with a RageTail trailer, the blade of the chatterbait is curved downward at the top for extra thump. Man, that thing will nearly rattle the fillings in your teeth. But it's worked wonders this year with muddy water for me. I don't use a scent and I use mainly a dark color in case they're using sight to fine-tune their approach as they get closer to my chatterbait. Reel it in at a speed just fast enough to get the blade thumping, that way the bass have more time to hit the slowly moving target.

 

I'm sure a large profile dark colorado-blade spinnerbait, maybe even a loud lipless crank would also get it done. I just know nothing in my tackle box thumps like that chatterbait. 

[Matthew2000]

Stay close to cover or structure the fish will not be roaming around, you have to put thta bait in front of their face.

[einscodek]

Greetings from Nebraska. Due to the 11"of rain that fell overnight a couple of days ago, our water quality has the consistency of concentrated chocolate milk. I realize this is a temporary problem, but, how does one go about fishing with these conditions? Yesterday, water viability was less than 1". Am I wasting my time?

Problem?  I am waiting for some major Springtime storms.. no go for the northeast in NJ.. I'd love to fish in chocolate milk esp post frontal in spring.

[Ozark_Basser]

Chatterbaits, square bills, and jigs tight to cover would be my plan.

[EvanT123]

Try a popper up on the bank.

[frogflogger]

Black lure of your choice

['Bago-Bassin']

Others have said it already but I'll toss in my vote for: slow, loud and bright colors.