dirty water

[karol]

 alright, here it is. how do you fish dirty water that has 2" of visibilty? caught 1 stinkin little 12" LM on a white strike king 1/2 ounce spinnerbait and nothing else.  can it be too dirty for tubes in water like that?tried buzzbait buy no action and got a tiny nip on a zoom frog but it was prolly only a gill. what would you do? thanks guys.. 4 times out this year and only that little bass to show for it getting really desperate..karol..

  and 1 more thing, am i fishing tubes the wrong way? i work'em like a jerkbait-twitch and pull twitch and pull. do they have to be in contact with the bottom? like a worm? ..karol

[Jay-MadWags]

alright, here it is. how do you fish dirty water that has 2" of visibilty? caught 1 stinkin little 12" LM on a white strike king 1/2 ounce spinnerbait and nothing else.  can it be too dirty for tubes in water like that?tried buzzbait buy no action and got a tiny nip on a zoom frog but it was prolly only a gill. what would you do? thanks guys.. 4 times out this year and only that little bass to show for it getting really desperate..karol..

  and 1 more thing, am i fishing tubes the wrong way? i work'em like a jerkbait-twitch and pull twitch and pull. do they have to be in contact with the bottom? like a worm? ..karol

Spinnerbaits work in dirty water try colorado blades.  You want to use something that puts out a little vibration.  I've had luck with willow leaf too.  In dirty water you also want to try and use chartruse and white blades.  That combination has worked for me in the past.

As for working tubes, there is no wrong way to work a tube.  But tubebaits are prferably a clear water bait unless you are casting to isolated rock piles.

Another dirty water bait you might want to try is a shallow running "wide wobbling" crankbait preferable in a yellow or something bright.  Lucky Craft makes some good ones with Rick Clunn's signature on them.  A little pricey but they are worth it.

I hope this helps.

[fowlmouth]

when the water looks like chocolate milk I have good luck with a white chatterbait, also like a 4 blade buzzbait in those conditions. anything with lots of vibration that you can run slow.

[Slipkey]

Both MadWags and fowlmouth make good points.  When I used to live in Illinois, I'd fish the Mississippi, Illinois or Calumet Rivers most of the time.  It took me a (really, really) long time to figure out how to fish the really muddy stuff well, so I feel your pain. Thankfully, I made friends with a couple of river rats out there who showed me the ropes.

Most of my problems were fishing too fast.  Muddy is relative to the norm the fish are used to.  Muddy after a cold, hard rain shuts things down more than 2" of visibility every day so it's all relative.  There are a few muddy water baits that have become go-to's for me, though:

1) Weedless spoon with a Twin Tail Hula Grub trailer - great for covering water in muddy, weedy backwaters.  Spinnerbaits will work too, as MadWags recommended, but if there's stuff floating throughout the water column, I'll take the spoon so as not to spend extra time cleaning my lure.

2) Storm Wiggle Wart  - I rarely use this brand of crankbait other than in really stained water. It's got a supper wide wobble, loud rattle, and rises fast so you put out alot of vibration and can float yourself out of a jam if you need to.  White and Flourescent Craw have been good to me.  The Lucky Craft CB 001 is also hot for the same reasons - just expensive to lose

3) 4"-6" Black/Chartreuse Ribbon-Tail Worm.  Just gets bites -many of them small, but helps you get an idea of what the fish are doing.

4) 4"-6" Power Craw in Pumpkin/Flourescent Orange or Black/Red/Chartreuse - Same reasons as above, depending on the conditions and bottom.

My biggest lesson learned with muddy water though, was to thorougly work every piece of cover or structure that my gut tells me has a fish on it.  It probably does, but you'll just need to spend the time to get the bait right in front of them before they'll take it. 

Sorry for turning my reply into a book, but, like I said, I feel your pain.

[djkimmel]

The ole Mississippi - talk about the Big Muddy... I do like the thumping spinnerbaits - white and darks to try contrast. And I do like a good vibrating crankbait with some noise that I can fish varying speeds. All the same advice above I would give. I really did well with Oklahoma or turtle-back blades on the Big Muddy - flash kind of like a willow with thump like a Colorado blade - about the same size a bite-sized shad. Hard to find so Colorado blades work instead.

I've had good luck with other wobbling shallow crankbaits too - like Bomber Shallow A's in parrot, white or silve flash. Mann's 1 Minus are similar.

Work any lure real tight to cover most of the time, but I am sometimes amazed at how well bass can find even things as mentioned like small finesses worms when they are used to the muddy water. Try to stay with slow steady retrieves most of the time in muddy water. I do the same thing when nightfishing - give the bass some contrast and something the bass can home in on and time its attack on for the best chance at hookups most of the time.

When possible, I try bulky slow baits too, like a slow-falling jig and pig in a dark or bright color. I remember flipping the south shore of Lake St. Clair for largemouths years ago in a tournament before the water dropped - it was really stirred up and muddy from wind. I was flipping a standard 1/2 black jig with black trailer - had my limit in 20 minutes and culled 4 more within 40 minutes to a very decent limit for those days while the guy I was with throwing a Yamamoto twin tail only had one bite the whole time.

karol - you might also try fishing a dark tube or really bright one slower, less erratic, with a rattle in it. The noise can make a difference at time. You can get rattles designed for tube, use jingle bells from craft stores, or use worm rattles and glue them inside the tube, attach them to the hook shank with shrink wrap, or put them in the tube and stuff a cut off piece of plastic worm in behind (a spot of super glue still helps) the rattle to keep it inside.

[thedude]

all i can add to already good advice woud be to try a black/blue sweet beaver type bait on a jig or t-rig. they move a lot of water for a plastic bait. oh yeah... make lots of casts 

[Skip Johnson]

try black plastic worms or craws and black pig n jigs and fish them slow with alot of shake I love fishing muddy water.

[PIGSMALLIE]

Jig-n-pigs spinnebaits try anything but willowleaf or powerworms.Black and blue or Greenpumpkin Jigs always work well. Move alot of water. Cranks too.

[karol]

 thanks guys, now that i think about it i should've used something wide and slow to make the water move. got stuck on keeping the spinnerbait on 1 rod and throwing charteuse tubes on the other. thanks again ..karol

[Mojo]

I love this web site ! You guys and gals are awesome. I just learned a ton. It's like listening to the expert play - by - play announcers !

It seems to me on real bright days, I had black work best for me. Sluggo worms real slow (when I miss the tree and actually get under them). Dan also taught me just now why this black with white dot crank bait seemed to work best in dirty water - contrast !