what would you call this water clarity? PICS!!!

[Tanker4lyfe]

Was wondering what you guys would clasify this water as, dingy, stained, murky. Also what color/patterns would you use.

[Gatorbassman]

slightly stained

[TommyBass]

Stained.... no specific color or tactic would hit me for that... I wouldnt use tranluscent colors or very light watermelons but any black, blue, red, darker green etc would be best.  Alot of people deal with alot worse clarity on a daily basis.

[Glenn]

Depends on where you live and what's the "norm" for the lakes in your area. In my neck of the woods, the norm is really clear water, so that's dingy water. I'd throw green pumpkin plastics, white/chartruese spinnerbaits, and any crankbait with red and chartruese in it.

[JShrock07]

I call it stained not a lot but a little bit.

As for lures I would throw any type of crankbait in a firetiger color  

[mattm]

I would go with stained as well.

[fourbizz]

WOW. I have always thought of this as stained

Stained being off color water that is off color because of tanin or something, but not off color because of mud, algae, etc.

Water like your picture, where it is clearly off color because of particulates, i would call dingy,murky, muddy, etc.

[mattm]

Fourbizz,

I'm not suprised at all in your difference of opinion.  When I started to seriously get into bass fishing it seemed water clarity was the only thing I couldn't get a ton of info on.  You can read all day about structure, cover, lures, rods, reels, line, boat and weather conditions.  However, it seems it is just up to the angler to decipher the difference between clear, stained, dingy and muddy.  

Even though brief, I believe that your description of what constitutes dingy vs stained to you is the first attempt I've heard at it being explained.

[fourbizz]

If I came off like I'm right and you guys arent, thats not my intent. But like you said, I have found no conlcusive definitions either. But that is the only way of classifying that i could come up with that seemed logical.

[mattm]

You didn't come off as a know it all in the least bit.  Besides we all know you don't even think fish can see

It has always been frustrating to me that water clarity seems to be open to interpretation.  With as detailed as we get about every other little thing about our "sport" it surprises me nobody has came up with a guideline for water clarity so that we can all be on the same page when discussing it.  If I was 5 or 6 times smarter and less lazy I would do it myself.

[fourbizz]

Ok, here is something that helps my view point at least.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbidity

Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by individual particles (suspended solids) that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality.

So basically turbidity is what I would denote as muddy, dingy, etc.

I was unable to find anything helpful regarding tanin stained water in these few minutes. But I know that tannins are water soluble, thus not particulate, and therefore, not turbid.

[bigfruits]

ive always thought of it as how far down you can see your lure. if i cant see my lure 6-8 inches under the water, id consider that muddy

[Gatorbassman]

I fish so many different clarities of water during the year that I've started getting away from thinking of weather the water is stained, dingy, muddy, etc. I've started looking at it as "How far can the bass see in the water." I take a lure, (usually white) and let it sink in the water. When it disappears I stop and measure the length of the line. I then double it and that's as far as the bass can see. I use that information along with the color of the water to choose the color and action of my lures. ....... I hope this makes sense.

[Catt]

Water clarity: the distribution of temperature and dissolved oxygen, the concentrations of nutrients both dissolved and particulate materials in water.

Hum this is an interesting question and one that is determined like Glenn stated what the normal color for this body of water.

I also agree with fourbizz, in that water can have color and still be clear depending on what types of nutrients and particulate materials are found in the water and to what degree. Now dirt washed into a body of water is a different classification all together and would be considered muddy, murky, and dingy.

As for color of lures I think pretty much anything would be seen easily by the bass

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

Depends on where you live and what's the "norm" for the lakes in your area. In my neck of the woods, the norm is really clear water, so that's dingy water. I'd throw green pumpkin plastics, white/chartruese spinnerbaits, and any crankbait with red and chartruese in it.

Same here, for me, that's mud

When I think of "stained" I think of tea colored, not real cloudy,just dark. (what biz said but in laymans terms)

[BassinBoy]

Murky for me    

[Paul Roberts]

Great thread.

I do the same: I measure clarity in terms of depth too, noting whether lack of clarity is due to turbidity (an algal bloom, suspended material), or dissolved material (not so common here).

Looks to me like your pics show an algae bloom (the green), esp in the shallows by the rushes -maybe that is due to warmer temp or maybe it collected there from a breeze or other circulation.

[fishfordollars]

I would call it stained.

[CWB]

Depends on where you live and what's the "norm" for the lakes in your area. In my neck of the woods, the norm is really clear water, so that's dingy water. I'd throw green pumpkin plastics, white/chartruese spinnerbaits, and any crankbait with red and chartruese in it.

Agree with Glenn.

My local waters are mostly Gin clear so to me it would be stained.

[fourbizz]

I typically just describe the visibility in depth too. But I go by how deep i can see the bottom.

[Jake.]

That's barely stained where I come from.  

[Micro]

That looks like some of the cloudy tidal water I fish.  For plastics, I'd probably fish green pumpkin or black.   For cranks, I'd probably go with chartreuse, firetiger, a bright red craw color or something flashy.

[Cravin]

Stained/murky I'd easily throw any color in it, I think Id like a little noise or flash with a bait.

[Mattlures]

Stained to me has always meant darker or colored wtaer with a few feet visability. That water looked murky/muddy. Not chocolate milk muddy but it looks like only 1 1/2 - 2ft vis.

[IdahoLunkerHunter]

Depends on where you live and what's the "norm" for the lakes in your area. In my neck of the woods, the norm is really clear water, so that's dingy water. I'd throw green pumpkin plastics, white/chartruese spinnerbaits, and any crankbait with red and chartruese in it.

X2...Only in spring during run off for about a month or two is the water possibly that color... Usually up the creeks etc.  Most of the time you can see 5+ feet deep. On the rivers its about 15+ feet in summer... Makes great for sight fishing structure.

Colors as Glenn noted.