Muddy Water Advantage

[Catt]

Muddy water due to runoff is caused by frontal conditions. 

 

Questions again 

How recent was the front,

How severe was the front?

How high did the water rise?

 

Runoff coming down the natural flow will clear in the head waters first. 

 

Vegetation will filter the water quicker that timber, brush, or rock.

 

Look for "clearer" water, not necessarily "clear".

 

I throw lures that have a lot for flash & vibration.

[Pat Brown]

Let's say the front hits on day one and typically lingers doing not much for a couple days sometimes more but a lot of times around 2 days in the dead of winter.

 

Let's say water level doesn't have the ability to rise substantially and doesn't but it gets to 'full' during these fronts usually.

 

Severity, let's say it's steady and mild rain for a day leading into the front and it stops after one long day of warmer than the lake/pond rain.

 

This kinda thing happens all the time.  Usually followed by frigid windy days.

 

Usually the super clear water gets mighty cloudy and orange for the first day and then gets progressively less orange and more cloudy until it stabilizes.  Unless it doesn't stabilize. If it's too gentle it actually doesn't make the water dirty, it makes it clear.  

 

So for arguments sake we are talking a real rain, not a short drizzle and definitely not a super hard rain.

[Woody B]

I think pretty much every lake, and every situation is different.  The coldest water I've seen (according to "my" transducer*) since I got my boat in 2021 is 45 degrees.  I've had decent success with Largemouth and really good success with Spots (including my PB) is relatively clear water under 50 degrees.  

 

Now for the muddy water.  Last Winter we had a BUNCH of rain.   The lake was full of floating debris and was so muddy it looked like you should be able to walk on it.   I struggled.   The only bass shallow were 10 inch spots, and they were scattered.  (on of the curses of live sonar).   The "real" bass were 15 to 30 feet deep hugging the bottom.  I'd have to mess with my sonar settings to pick them up on the bottom.   They were basically non responsive or ran from my lures.   

 

I've got a plan to try, it the high muddy water happens this year.  An online friend of mine named Pat Brown suggested in another thread, not a cold water thread that perhaps the lakes I fish sometimes have a stained, murky or muddy layer near the surface, but the water may be clearer deeper.   I didn't try anything finesse in the muddy cold water last year.   

[Pat Brown]

I think that the hidden underwater clear water is huge in the winter time.  Probably especially when they're pulling or when there's a slight breeze and temps have steadily gone up a little for a day or two.

 

The debris and leaves all make a very stained leaf tea that makes it hard to tell if it's muddy or just very stained but I still believe this tends to hover up near the surface and those undercurrents in the original creek channels that follow the lakes major contours over hard cover are going to stay clear.

 

I'm guessing if you can find these pinch points with steady current where the top layer is muddy and underneath it's very clear AND you have hard cover in direct sunlight nearby and some solid depth changes and bait, probably gonna do really well for yourself.

 

I got a few areas I would have never thought to try during the cold months that now I'm eyeing way up and down the lake.  I usually stick to the main lake during the winter but I'm thinking that may be my problem.

[FishTax]

I'm hoping to upgrade my sonar this year so that I can actually see what's happening in that muddy water a little better. Otherwise I'll just be tossing jigs, worms various ways, and spinner bait, trying to find a pattern as usual. 

I wonder if one of those underwater camera deals would allow you to find out if the dirty water is only surface level? 

[the reel ess]

When it's really muddy I go shallow and pitch a black/blue jig or a nighttime spinnerbait to all the visible cover. You'd be surprised sometimes how far a bass can detect food in off-colored water. Living in the region I do we see a lot of off-color water in the year. Fish have to eat.

[Team9nine]

4 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

Let's say the front hits on day one and typically lingers doing not much for a couple days sometimes more but a lot of times around 2 days in the dead of winter.

 

Let's say water level doesn't have the ability to rise substantially and doesn't but it gets to 'full' during these fronts usually.

 

Severity, let's say it's steady and mild rain for a day leading into the front and it stops after one long day of warmer than the lake/pond rain.

 

This kinda thing happens all the time.  Usually followed by frigid windy days.

 

Usually the super clear water gets mighty cloudy and orange for the first day and then gets progressively less orange and more cloudy until it stabilizes.  Unless it doesn't stabilize. If it's too gentle it actually doesn't make the water dirty, it makes it clear.  

 

So for arguments sake we are talking a real rain, not a short drizzle and definitely not a super hard rain.

Might check this old post out where I tracked winter rain effects on my ponds and the fishing:

 

 

[Bluebasser86]

I prefer muddy water in the right conditions. Cold, muddy water is rarely the right conditions in my experience. Now if the water is cold and there is warm, muddy water running into it from a fresh rain, game on. If the water is in the high 40's or above though, I'd rather be in dirty water than clear water. That was the game plan that played out for me in the strip pit tournament this summer. I fished all the clear pits and would catch fish, but not the ones I needed. Finally found a couple with dirty water, ended up in 3rd place and got big bass. It was night and day difference for me. 

[Catt]

Since some are offering different scenarios here our current conditions.

 

The rivers, bayous, swamps, & marshes south of I-10 are for the most part brackish & off colored/muddy.

 

We're currently under a 3 month drought, this has attributed to clearer water. 

 

The bad part is we're experiencing strong southerly winds that have raised the salinity levels. The rise in salinity enough to kill grass.

 

What y'all got cause I ain't got much!

[Pat Brown]

@Catt Find areas where in flowing freshwater is feeding the brackish main body. Even if it's dried  up above ground, I'd think that in a desert, the animals will find the oasis and the water is still flowing in under ground.  I wish I knew more chemistry.  There are probably areas where the salinity naturally decreases due to current and environmental factors.  Those might be good areas.

[Catt]

@Pat Brown

The headwaters of the Sabine River is north of Toledo Bend. The headwaters of the Calcasieu River is somewhere around Alexander, Louisiana.

 

Running up river is helping but only slightly. We're still catching but absolutely no size. I put 8 in the boat that barely weighed 10#. 

[Woody B]

I know very little about the waters I fish.  I know nothing about brackish water.   We all fish different waters.   

 

As I said earlier last Winter I was faced with cold muddy water, combined with higher than normal lake levels.  I "thought" I needed to go up the creeks, and up one river to find "better" water.  I didn't find bass there, but found the few I found in deeper water on the main lake.   When people talk I try to be a sponge, and learn all I can.   A conversation I had months after the muddy, high water made sense to me.   

 

OK, more information about the body of water I'm talking about.  Lake Wylie, in NC/SC.   It's fed by the Catawba river, out of Mountain Island Lake.  It's also fed by several creeks and the South Fork River.   I've read that 1/3 of the water coming into Wylie comes from the South Fork.   Wylie is ~13000 acres, and close to 30 miles long.  I have read that on average it takes "water" 30 days to get from the Mountain Island dam to the Lake Wylie dam.   

 

OK, back to the conversation I had with a retired BassMaster pro several months after struggling with the muddy high water.   I told him I had zero luck up the creeks and up the South Fork river.   He said when the creeks and river flooded they took in a bunch of trash, and even stagnated water from pools/puddles near them.   He said this would drop oxygen levels causing the fish to flee.  (or trigger a fish kill if bad enough).   I didn't see fish floating so I don't think there was a major fish kill.   I thought the newly flooded areas, and the areas near them would be rich with "new" nutrients.........instead of deprived of Oxygen.    

 

Right now it doesn't look like I'll be fishing flooded waters anytime soon.   The power company usually keeps lake levels within a foot of so.  Right now the lake is down a good 4 feet.   That's not much compared to many lakes, but I suspect it's a shock for bass here.   This time of year, with water temps in the low 60's I'd expect to find a bunch of bass, and baitfish up the creeks.   I'm only seeing a few baitfish, a few Gar, some Carp and some small (10 inch) Spotted bass.   2 months ago I was catching decent LM's and Spots up the creeks and catching 10 inch Spots on the main lake.    Maybe I'm giving the Bass too much credit, but I believe the mature Bass recognized the lowering water levels and went to deeper water in the main channel.  (that's where I'm catching them)  There's way more bait fish in the main lake also.   I also suspect the juvenile bass are following their instincts and going up the creeks because the days have gotten shorter.   

 

I can't find any hint of a thermocline, but the lake it too clear (and too warm IMHO) to be experiencing a normal turnover.   

 

So now I've brought clearer than normal water into a muddy water thread.   In warmer muddy water I have really good luck in the mouths of the creeks using flashy lures right up in the middle of heavy cover.