cant see the beds

[blanked]

my new home lake has murky water ( 1 foot clarity ) making it  almost useless to sight fish. are there better lures than others to tempt the bass to  stike  the first time its anywhere near the bed rather than having to throw at the same spot and aggrevate the bass. how far will a bass travel from his bed to stike a lure

[Rattletrap]

Clausen fished the beds and did not site fish. He fished the pads methodically until he hooked up. Pads are a usually good indicator of a sandy hard bottom that the bedding bass like. He used a Mann's hard-nosed, six-inch junebug worm.  

[Chris]

Top water, rattletrap, spinnerbait, it depends on the mood of the fish I won a spawning tournament pitching a jig in dirty water last year. I didn't have a clue where the beds where I just took my time and fished methodically.

[Guest ouachitabassangler]

I'd rather see the bass on a bed than be able to see the bed. If you can't spot the bass, then you really are not sight-fishing. But you could be in the vicinity of beds if you know you are shallow (much shallower than in a clear lake) and over hard bottom, the sun could warm the eggs up, and if the lake is known for trophy bass, you'll be your closest to them all year long. Classic sight-fishing has putting a lure on or coming through the bed at a time the guarding male has stopped worrying about feeding. Lures that cause the male to ract to protect the nest are the best choices, like plastic lizards. So you could slowly work one of those in a likely area and catch a male. But those are much smaller than the females, which remain around the bed only an hour or two. I don't luck onto large females often so look for them farther downstream in the next deepest water. They are still in the feeding mood so are actually easier to catch. Messing with males on beds has the potential of ruining a nest, as if he's gone only 10 minutes all the eggs or fry can be eaten by panfish.  Jim

[BassChaser57]

I think I would go find some prespawn bass in a staging area and pour it on em. Sight fishing in muddy water doesn't work very well.   8-)

[Guest ouachitabassangler]

The Clausen case is a good point to bring up. He knew where the beds were before the wind kicked the water to muddy. That's a great case for investing in GPS so you won't be clueless when water clarity goes bad. He knew, muddy or not, at least males would be well hidden in that dark water. Another angler coming on that spot might never have guessed what was happening down there. But if you don't scout it out and things change like that, it can be a huge disappointment. In that case the only alternative would be to fish the smaller pre-spawners still feeding actively, but the guys knowing where active beds are will be on the largest spawners that take up bed territory first.

Jim

[Guest bigtex]

When I face conditions such as yours I tie on a 4" baby brush hog with a light weight. (split shot)