water clarification

[Newbie-Co]

so - if water clarity is defined at clear, let us say 6 foot is clear, but you are fishing on bottom 15 foot. do you still use lures for clear water if you are fishing on bottom? if yes does it apply for the other water types in the same scenario? if not what do you use?

[geo g]

General rule the clearer the water the more natural and light the colors.  The less visibility the darker the color.  Also the lower the light conditions the darker the color.  Night fishing, first light, and dusk.  Those are the simple rules I have followed for a long time, anywhere in the country.

[WRB]

Water clarity is subjective to each angler, however there is a standard using secchi disk and charts are available. 

So hypothetically the depth of light measured by our unaided vision, we can see the bottom details at a specific depth what color lure would we use, is that your question?

Tom

[Deleted account]

There is water clarity, and light penetration, related but different. As you fish deeper, there will be less light.

[Newbie-Co]

22 hours ago, geo g said:

General rule the clearer the water the more natural and light the colors.  The less visibility the darker the color.  Also the lower the light conditions the darker the color.  Night fishing, first light, and dusk.  Those are the simple rules I have followed for a long time, anywhere in the country.

so, following your rule, if you were fishing water that you deem clear and you chose to throw your choice lure, does your lure color selection change if you fished deeper than you intended? or to put it another way, if water is clear (whatever you deem to be that depth) and you choose to drag a jig on the bottom and the bottom is 25 foot, does the color now matter at this point as it did initially. Does that make sense?

10 hours ago, reason said:

There is water clarity, and light penetration, related but different. As you fish deeper, there will be less light.

I got this, so if there is less light deeper, does it change your decision on what color to use? for example,  if water is clear (whatever you deem to be that depth) and you choose to drag a jig on the bottom and the bottom is 25 foot, does the color now matter at this point as it did initially. Does that make sense?

22 hours ago, WRB said:

Water clarity is subjective to each angler, however there is a standard using secchi disk and charts are available. 

So hypothetically the depth of light measured by our unaided vision, we can see the bottom details at a specific depth what color lure would we use, is that your question?

Tom

yes, subjective to each angler, I am a co-angler - so not boat. as our depth is impaired as it gets deeper. does the color selection matter as much as it did when our depth was not impaired?

[WRB]

Water can be gin clear but there is a depth the secchi disk dissapears and our human eyes can no longer see it, that is the maximum depth of light as far as we can see.

The clearest fresh water lake I have ever fished was Lake Tahoe in the 60's where dark color pine trees laydowns in 100' of water were clearly visible on the light bottom. The 1st ledge at Tahoe dropped off into 1,500' and crystal clear water looked dark purple. I drifted a live weighted crawdad with all my off the reel except about 10 turns of the reel along the ledge and caught a 10 lb 2 oz rainbow trout, about 125' deep. The trout obviuosly could see the natural color crawdad and I could see flashes of white as I fought this trout in very deep water.

I have caught LMB in over 60' of water and Smallmouth in over 80' using translucent smoke color soft plastics more then 3X below the depth of light. I have no idea how fish see prey that deep but the do. If bass are biting a specific color don't ponder it just use it.

Tom

[geo g]

In South florida most of our fishing is done in 3 to 7 feet of water.  Only the canals, and a few lakes, get deeper then that.  Everglades are 2 to 6 feet deep for hundreds of miles, and Okeechobee a max depth of 15 feet, with 60% under 6 feet deep.  So when you talk about fishing deep we don't do it as much as other parts in the country.   Clear water gives us visibility to almost the bottom with thick vegetation the only obstacle.  In clear water a bass will not have a problem seeing a bait even in deep water.  Remember it's not whether you can see the bait, it's whether the bass can see it.  Bass eyes are far different then ours.  Also remember that bass eyes are not a bass's only means of detecting pray.