fishing really muddy cold water

[Carrington]

i would use a jig or a senko, for colors i would use dark green and black

[flippn stick]

Wow thats tough anywhere. If the lake, pond, river, reservoir has an abundance of wood cover dont be afraid to fish relitivly shallow. TIGHT TIGHT TIGHT to cover with a big jig with a good loud rattle will help. Make several presentations to a target from different angles. Make sure your jig is making good contact with the cover and really get that rattle to work. In cold muddy water these fish will be in the heart of the thick stuff. Dont be affraid to loss a few jigs. Get in fornt of one and GAME OVER. They EAT

[bassinbob54]

wow another 2 plus inches of cold rain just fell makeing matters much worse im sure its gonna be tough but i cant stand it an im going! gomma try some of these great tips too...thanks guys

[BassmanDan]

Good luck Bob...let us know how it turned out. At least you're out there shaking off the cabin fever.

[Eternal Angler]

I would fish really light colors and fish them really slow.

[Jon in VA]

In cold, muddy water, go to the Lucky Craft Fat CB BDS3 in 'Mad Craw' and work it very slow around any shallow cover you can find. The bass are NOT gonna work for food at this point, so you gotta put it right in their kitchen and leave it there for as long as possible.

[bassinbob54]

well i have been going out anyway and i did find some water that wasnt real muddy and i caught a few fish on my new favorite bait...the jig n pig..not many bites but all were nice fat fish..now its going to rain again tomorrow so i'll probably lose my decent water

[swamper79]

Not sure it was what some would consider "really muddy cold water" but a local bass club had a tournament this past weekend, the day after it rained 1", and the winning pair had a 5 fish limit weight of 22.42lbs with a 7.00lb kicker.  The air temp was 45 and it was cloudy all day.  The water was more highly stained than muddy though.  Jig and pig on shallow timber was the ticket I believe. 

[stalking coyote]

Clearer cold water is better than muddy clear water... now with that said... and if you have no choice...

How muddy are we talking here? If were talking chocalate milk or Yoo-Hoo... then you basically have to hit the bass on the nose with the lure to get them to bite... and if that's the case then forget fishing deep... the chances of getting the lure in front of the fish or hitting him on the nose so to speak is not very likely... you will have alot better odds of getting on top of the bass up shallow where you can see the structure you need to fish and pick it apart... fish any wood cover you can find... and go big... bigger profile baits... bigger jigs and trailers... bigger bladed spinnerbaits... larger crankbaits... you want the most vibration you can get... as for color's... visibility is the key... darker colored lures like black or dark purple and high viz colors like floro chart or floro orange... spinnerbaits with a big Colorado blade (strong thumping vibration) in the above colors will work... bass will hug the wood tight tight tight in any really muddy water condition... by going shallow at least you can increase your chances of thumping one one the nose... I'm assuming you are talking about less than 6" of visibility hear... you have to be accurate with your pitch's or flips too... in 6" or less visibility and cold water... bass are not going to see, feel, or chase your bait if your not on top of them... period... he won't hit what he can't see or feel... and they will not be out roaming in Yoo-Hoo water... they will hunker down and wait it out... you have to HIT THEM ON THE NOSE... and that is just less likely to happen in deep water under extremely muddy conditions... it will be slow slow slow fishing... and very very very few bites... 5-8 good bites all day is what you are fishing for... and you better be ready for them... cuz they will be few and far between... but chances are they will be very good fish...

I Fish these exact same conditions every year during February and March somewhere... and it is very slow fishing... but like I said... you have to be determined, alert, cover water, and still fish slow... I forget any open banks without wood, rock, or vegetation... hit the key spots thoroughly and move on to the next piece... look for any dark objects that may absorb heat from what if any sun that may be out that day... and remember muddy water will absorb heat quicker and to a much higher degree than clear water... look to the backs of shallow dips or cuts... if you catch a fish take stock on what you caught it off of... wood, rock, vegetation, lone piece of wood, rock, or vegetation, heavy wood only, type of wood or vegetation, I've seen alot of times where the type of wood, vegetation, size of the wood limb or log made all the difference...

These are just the things that work for me in these conditions... you have to adjust as you figure out what they are holding to up shallow and what it takes to get them to bite... jig, spinnerbait, or crankbait... I'll throw all three at the structure until I figure out which one is working better than the other... sometimes it is one... sometimes it's the first one that gets close enough for him to feel the lure... in these extremely muddy conditions the bass will most likely feel the lure before he ever see's it... if he even really ever see the lure...

Good Luck... and I hope this helps... I'm like you... I would rather be out there trying that sitting home wishing I was out there!

[Helluva_Engineer]

So add these conditions with the lake being down so no real shallow wood. I find a BLATANT line between clear and muddy water where a creek comes in. How do I fish it? Would that even be a good place to fish.

[bassinbob54]

that happened here too after all that muddy water flooded the lake , they dropped it like 4 feet exposeing what little wood we have here so fishing shallow was a lot tougher..what i did was work my jig mostly  around rock. I figured if they cant find wood then they'll go for rock instead and  thats where i got my bites

[stalking coyote]

So add these conditions with the lake being down so no real shallow wood. I find a BLATANT line between clear and muddy water where a creek comes in. How do I fish it? Would that even be a good place to fish.

It would be a good place to fish... how you fish it depends on the bass and the location of the mud line... is the mudline on the inside or outside? What I mean is starting from the bank is the water clear for a ways and then gets muddy (inside) or is it muddy from the bank out and then the mud line is out in deeper water? And sometimes... you can have both mudlines in the same place... Fishing the outside mudline is always a good place to fish... First I would get parralell with outside mudline and throw the same lures along the edge of the mudline, next I would throw the lures into the muddy water and bring them out into the clear water... bass will set up along the mudline and ambush bait as it comes out to them... this is even a great place to fish on windy days along the wind blown banks... except I would also add jerkbaits to this mix... Fishing the inside mudline depending upon how much space you have between the mudline and the banks can be tougher especially along bare banks (i.e. no structure) ... but the same principles apply... and if you can find some structure like wood, rocks, or vegetation all the better... I would also look for ditches coming off the banks where water runs into the lake... any ditches or runoffs... even small ones like 6" and follow them out a little ways with your graphs... it's not easy but this is where I would start... and just adjust from there...

[stalking coyote]

that happened here too after all that muddy water flooded the lake , they dropped it like 4 feet exposeing what little wood we have here so fishing shallow was a lot tougher..what i did was work my jig mostly around rock. I figured if they cant find wood then they'll go for rock instead and thats where i got my bites

If they dropped the water 4' leaving nothing but bare exposed banks... little to no wood... that is tougher, no doubt... But, yes I would start looking for any type of cover... rocks, what wood I could find, any vegetation... bridges along roads... and like I said above... if you find clear water/ muddy water mud lines... I would fish these very hard... especially along points and any ledges I could find... look for water runoff ditches, etc... it's tough and slow fishing like I said earlier... but it sounds like you are trying... catching a few fish... but if you are finding mudlines with clear/ muddy water mix... then I'm assuming the whole lake is not a choclate milk mix or Yoo-Hoo mix... and in this case you might not actually have muddy water throughout the complete water column... which means you might be able to go out into deeper water and actually fish below the horizontal (surface) mudline.... this can be an effective method as well if this is the case (i.e. a horizontal mudline profile in the lake)... You can have muddy water on the surface of the water column and clear water beneath it... but I don't know your lake and can't actually see the conditons for myself... so I can only offer suggestions on where to start looking... hope this maybe of some help anyway...

[A-Rob]

perhaps a different end of the lake has more lightly stained water?

cold and muddy is not easy fishing!

[jerkw8nonajerk01]

Hank Parker said in Bassin mag if its muddy and cold find new water....but if you had to I hear chart and white spinnerbaits work well...My home waters are like this and ive only been catching on black and blue tubes and junebug finesse worms on shakey head lightest weight possible

[bassinbob54]

thats  funny because Hank fishes this lake im talking about and he usually fishes the extreme upper end , actually he fishes the river..but on the catawba river we get real red thick mud often after hard rains and at 1st i can run down the lake but after a couple of days the mud moves in and of course i go back to the upper part where it may or may not be any clearer..i dont know how to tell if its muddy all the way through the water but it sure looks like it is..heres a pic after its cleared up 50%...http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab317/bassinbob54/thelake004.jpg

[stalking coyote]

Something else to consider when fishing really muddy water...

Water that is heavily stained or muddy often appears reddish in color because little light of any wavelength (all colors are just different wavelengths of light) is allowed to pass through... the blues and greens are absored more than the reds...

Bass have have two optical pigments for color vision, red and green... Both pigments absorb light over a broad range of wavelengths, but each has its own optimum where it absorbs light the best... Based upon scientific studies of bass vision... Bass color discrimination capability appears to be the strongest in the red and green zones...

In very muddy waters, reds, oranges, and yellows are about the only colors of light available... given this... bass will not see purple as purple, blue as blue, or green as green, they will end up as varying shades of black or grey... except for the reds, oranges, and yellows... in shallow water... once you get to the depth that the red, orange, and yellow light wavelengths are absorbed (which will be quickly in very muddy water) they too will become lighter shades of black or grey...

In clear water the opposite is true... the reds, oranges, and yellows will be the first wavelengths to be absorbed and bass will not be able to distinguish between these colors as deep as the greens, blues, and purples...

So... in very muddy water the bass will have the best chance of visibility (i.e seeing them the farthest away) with the reds, oranges, and yellows... that is why red, orange, and yellow... along with the floro chart/yellow/orange colors along with black... generally will be your best producing colors...

When fishing really muddy water... I would start out with selecting these color options in the lures I will throw... jigs & trailers, spinnerbaits/skirts/blades, and crankbaits...

As for water temperatures... something else to keep in mind is that... studies have shown that when the water temperature is 40 degrees or less... bass only have to feed once a month to survive... and as the water temperature rises throughout the 40's it goes up a little from there... but still they can get by feeding only every two weeks or so... this makes for some very tough fishing and conditions... that is why most of your strikes will be reactionary strikes and your lure will have to be very very close to the bass...

So if you decide to go after bass in very cold muddy water (absolutely the worst fishing conditions) keep some of this information tucked in the back of your mind... I am not making this stuff up... this is all information taken directly from scientific studies... and if you really watch the pro's fish under these exact same conditions throughout Febuary and March when all this generally happens... you will see alot of jigs, spinnerbaits, and crankbaits being thrown... and generally up shallow for a reason...

[cart7t]

Clearer cold water is better than muddy clear water...

muddy clear water?   :-?

[stalking coyote]

my mistake... typo error ;D

Naturally, I meant... cold clear water is better than cold muddy water...

[K_Mac]

I am with cart7t on this one. 8-) Unless there is money on the line, muddy 40 degree water is just not worth the effort. When I was younger I would go regardless of conditions. Now I'm a little more choosy...

[BigEbass]

I feel your pain with dark and "muddy" water.  I live in Birmingham, AL - the classic is going on down here and just look at the pros right now - the water in Lay Lake is stained pretty pronounced and 44-46 degree temps (last year probably 55-60) - many pros on prefishing days did not get a bite, some got "as many" as 6 bites......I guess that tells you somthing about "cold and muddy water" - its tough, even for the pros who got mucho experience and gear.

But I still fished yesterday - hauled water baby - fished all day at a small lake (public) nearby, not a single bite from 10am to 4pm - I can say though that I did not try black or purple - will give those colors a shot! A bad day on the lake is better than a good day at the office....

Chatterbait - I am a newb but I got a couple chatterbaits - for alabama largemouth, they are worth having around - I am not so sure if they are a good winter lure though (correct me if I am wrong) - I have killed bass with it though in spring and summer.

This severe cold weather has inspired me to learn the jig-n-pig myself - glad it has worked out for you - wow, two 4 pounders...nice  - I have not been so lucky so far, but I think I am still getting the feel of using jigs - had before stuck with worms, cranks, and spinnerbaits.