Jig skirt/trailer combos for tannic water

[TriStateBassin106]

What type of jigs patterns are you throwing in tannic (tea) water? Not to be confused with stained water since tannic is usually clear but just tea color. Asking because i'm fishing a new lake soon with similar conditions from tannic acid from leaves in the water. 

[Pat Brown]

Black and Blue/Junebug and green pumpkin/White.   I use these colors in pretty much any water clarity.

[GetFishorDieTryin]

I don't think you can go wrong as long as the base color is black.  Black/Blue is probably my favorite, but I've done really well with black and red too.  That water can give everything a red tint, so that may be why ive done well with red flecks and red claws, but just about impossible to prove.  

 

 

[DINK WHISPERER]

I treat tannic water much like crystal clear water and throw natural patterns. My favorite is a green pumpkin and orange craw combination in both the jig and the trailer. Also, black/blue seems to work just about anywhere. 

[casts_by_fly]

That's how a lot of the water is around here.  I tend to fish golds/copper over silver, orange over blue/purple, and darker instead of lighter as guides.  

[WRB]

Gold blades and copper flake worked wherever I fish with tonic tea color water. Yamamoto #330 for soft plastics was good for example.

Tom

[Bankc]

You never know until you try.  

 

Unless it's black and blue.  Then you know it's gonna work because black and blue always works.  

[TriStateBassin106]

16 hours ago, DINK WHISPERER said:

I treat tannic water much like crystal clear water and throw natural patterns. My favorite is a green pumpkin and orange craw combination in both the jig and the trailer. Also, black/blue seems to work just about anywhere. 

Why orange? Seems like an interesting choice, I heard other anglers recommend that aswell. I use alabama craw which is sorta close to orange. 

8 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

That's how a lot of the water is around here.  I tend to fish golds/copper over silver, orange over blue/purple, and darker instead of lighter as guides.  

Yeah a lot of lakes here in jersey are like that. The lake I fished this weekend was tannic and had a distinctive brown hue to the water. 

[DINK WHISPERER]

3 hours ago, TriStateBassin106 said:

Why orange? Seems like an interesting choice, I heard other anglers recommend that aswell. I use alabama craw which is sorta close to orange. 

Yeah a lot of lakes here in jersey are like that. The lake I fished this weekend was tannic and had a distinctive brown hue to the water. 

Well I call it orange/green pumpkin but it is basically Alabama craw. Most of the craw I've seen here and found in fishes mouths are that color. So I try to mimic it as closely as possible. It produces almost every single time for me. 

[TriStateBassin106]

17 minutes ago, DINK WHISPERER said:

Well I call it orange/green pumpkin but it is basically Alabama craw. Most of the craw I've seen here and found in fished mouths are that color. So I try to mimic it as closely as possible. It produces almost every single time for me. 

That's awesome, i have some alabama craw paca craws I gotta try out, when the water is tannic what time of day/sky conditions fo you throw it in? 

[casts_by_fly]

In tannic water the orangey/brown light doesn’t penetrate as far so you amp up those colors a little more relative to a non tannic waterbody next door. So if you pull out a live craw and it has light orange claws you want to imitate, then pull out a blaze orange craw.  Black will still look like black and shows up well. Whites have been very hit or miss for me in tannic water. It should work, but I haven’t seen it. 

[TriStateBassin106]

27 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

In tannic water the orangey/brown light doesn’t penetrate as far so you amp up those colors a little more relative to a non tannic waterbody next door. 

I'm a little confused, so the alabama craw/orange is better seen since the light penetrates the water more? Sorry lol 

[DINK WHISPERER]

2 hours ago, TriStateBassin106 said:

That's awesome, i have some alabama craw paca craws I gotta try out, when the water is tannic what time of day/sky conditions fo you throw it in? 

I will use that color all day while the sun is up and out. If I'm in overcast conditions though I've found the black/blue out produces everything else. 

[WRB]

Tannic water isn’t muddy water it’s stained like putting tea bag in your drinking water. Tannins are leached out from decaying leaves, like the tea bag, not suspended particulates.

My 1st experience with tannic stained water was in Ontario Canada on Highwind lake, clear but tea color water. My farther in-law knew from experience that gold/copper spoons worked well at Highwind and he was right. Couldn’t buy a strike on silver or chrome blades or spoons. I had some copper ‘n coal ( smoke with Copper and black flake) worms that worked good, to me the color was nearly invisible in the water but the bass ate them.

Tom

[casts_by_fly]

12 hours ago, TriStateBassin106 said:

I'm a little confused, so the alabama craw/orange is better seen since the light penetrates the water more? Sorry lol 

 

correct-ish.

 

With clear water and nothing in it, you lose the spectrum as you go down.  Red fades first and blue last.  In very clear saltwater (150' visibility type clear) you'll hold some red colors down to about 15-20' before the deepest red starts fading.  The deeper you go, the further down the spectrum you lose.  At 500' you lose most light.  Remember the claims on red cajun line?  "It disappears in the water".  That's not entirely correct, but it does turn grey because all of the light from the sun which would turn it a color (i.e. the red light waves) can't penetrate down to it.

 

When you add 'things' into the water, those things absorb light and/or reflect light back up such that the color they are affecting can't make it deeper.  To counteract that, you can either add in a brighter version of that color to stand out more with the little of that color that's there (i.e. bright orange instead of dull tan), go the opposite side of the spectrum and work with what light is actually getting down there (if red isn't getting to your depth, try lime green/chartreuse if you want visibility), or go with a 'profile' based block color like black or white. 

 

Tannic water is absorbing/reflecting yellow spectrum light.  A yellow lure on the bottom is going to go grey.  An orange lure is going to go more mustard-y.  If you want the orange to stand out more, go with a brighter orange (fluorescent even) so that you're reflecting as much of the orange/yellow light that gets down there as possible.