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

[J Francho]

That water isn't what I'd call stained.  That's algae, and I usually refer to it as pea soup.  That looks like mild pea soup, with a bit of silt thrown in.  I don't get too fancy with colors, but I'd use some variation of black or motor oil for jigs and plastics.  I'd try adding rattles if I was having trouble getting bit.  Anything with chartreuse for reaction/crank baits, and Colorado or other wide blades for spinnerbaits.

[SimonDM17]

I'd call that muddy water, not stained.  I actually think bass can "see" much better in stained water (although they definitely see some colors better than others) than in muddy water.

On the flip side, I get way, way better reaction strikes in muddy water.  For muddy water like that, I agree with what's been said already--colorado spinnerbaits, dark colored plastics that have a big profile and/or vibration.  

I'd also like to add a white frog in there.  Twitching a white frog, either a Spro or a floating sizmic toad on a 3/0 EWG through shallow reeds and weeds in muddy water=magic.

[TrippyJai]

This is the method I use to tell. I take a spinnerbait to determine:

If I can see 2 feet or more = clear

stained = 6 inches to 2 feet

muddy = anything less than 6 inches

[Paul Roberts]

Pretty interesting how there are so many diff takes on "clarity" in those photos.

[scbassin]

To measure water clarity scientists use a device called a Secchi disk. It's a standard size black & white disk that gives repeatable readings. It will put you on the money. Or use the white jig meathod as has been described already, which is what I use too. It also looked stained to me.