Crystal Clear

[YaHoo]

I've been fishing a new lake lately and the water is absolutely crystal clear. I feel like I am bedfishing in march in a spring or something. I have been seeing fish 4-6 lb range swimming around and through the hydrilla in this lake all week and its driving me crazy. What lures or tactics do you guys use in clear water. Main cover is grass not much wood and the lake has its deep spots(12 ft) and shallow grass areas. Any suggestions? I know this bedfishing season I am taking a 10 from here I have already seen some potential!

[YaHoo]

the main forage appears to be wild shiner but there are also alot of bluegill in the lake?

im thinking weightless trickworms?

[BobP]

Two suggestions:  long casts, fluorocarbon line unless you're punching mats.  If you see them, they see you.

[ABLE2DISABLE1]

Swimbaits: money minnow, sexy swimmer, and long cast.

[WRB]

Fish during low light conditions and use a weedless swimbait or wakebait that mimics the baitfish the bass are feeding on.

WRB

[Catt]

In clear water grass is your friend; it will hide your line & mask your movements.

Work the submerged grass early and late with top water lures, traps, & spinner baits.

Continue making long cast working outside grass line and the first 5-10 yards inside the grass with Texas Rigs, Carolina Rigs & Jigs; as the sun gets higher move up closer and flip/pitch the denser grass.

[Bassn Blvd]

Freeline a wild shiner or bream would be a start.

[YaHoo]

i fished it today with overcast and steady wind and i didnt even see many bass cruising. The day where i saw all the fish was blue bird with no wind. The whole lake bottom is covered in thick hydrilla so i am starting to think i am just going to start flipping the really dense hydrilla mats. We catch small ones on speed worms all day but i want a bigger bite!

but if the whole lake is covered with hydrilla(90%) which is like 2-4 feet under the surface where do i start flipping?

the densest stuff or what? im so clueless!

[Randall]

My best tactic for big bass in clear lakes with hydrilla is to fish a hard swimbait like a Triple Trout, Mattlures Hard Bass or bluegill or sebile over the grass that is growing near the surface. Just choose the swimbait that best matches your forage. The swimbait casts farther than almost anything you can throw keeping you well away from the bass and it can be fished fast to cover more water than any other bait. It doesn't catch many giant bass over eight pounds for me fished this way but the number of four to eight pound fish I catch is way up there. There is no other bite more fun than this bite since the fish will hit the bait burned on the surface hard.

For either flipping/pitching or fishing the swimbait target any areas with holes or scattered patches of grass. The fish rarely use the thickest grass unless it is a thick mat with space for the fish to live underneath. 

[Tin]

For either flipping/pitching or fishing the swimbait target any areas with holes or scattered patches of grass. The fish rarely use the thickest grass unless it is a thick mat with space for the fish to live underneath.

x2

Fish the inconsistencies in the grass, any feature that is different and provides an ambush point. Also when you hit one slow down, they tend to stack up in specific locations in grassy lakes. Once you find them and why they are there, you can duplicate it on other similar areas throughout the lake, thus establishing your "pattern".

I would cover water with swimbaits, traps, and spinnerbaits on the cloudy days (focus on the edges) pitch until my arms fall off on sunny days (focus on the holes).

[kikstand454]

i have found that my best clear water choices have been long casts and natural colored unweighted soft plastics. watermelon, pumpkin, black and shad colors seem to work best.

i normally just adjust the hook size for how i want the bait to fall.

also clear,white or shad colored topwaters can give you distance and big bites. i go with subtle ones though... torpedo's, spittin image, devil horses etc. you can catch clear water fish on buzzbaits and the like but i think you can up your percentage more with subtlety.