Why muddy water might be your BEST chance at a trophy bass

Hey, it's Keith.

It's the time of year for an all but universal deterrent to bass anglers everywhere: muddy water. May is famous for wreaking havoc on ponds and lakes with heavy rain.

Personally, I've spent half my fishing career avoiding muddy water for the simple reason that I thought the fish couldn't see my lure. That all changed during a recent fishing trip to a pond just after a hard rain.

Turns out, when you avoid muddy water, you miss out on some of the most productive fishing opportunities of the season.

Worse yet, while you're sitting at home waiting for clearer conditions, trophy-sized bass are moving to predictable locations where savvy anglers can find them.

Today, I’m going to share with you how to use muddy water to your advantage when bass fishing. 

BEST LINKS

What I looked at this week

• Choosing the right bladed bait for muddy water (Wired2Fish)

• Dealing with high, muddy water (Bassmaster)

• How to catch bass in muddy water (Tactical Bassin)

• Pond fishing DIRTY water with crankbaits (TylersReelFishing)

• Bank fishing murky pond for BIG bass (Kodi Shwarz)

Deals of the week

• Pure Fishing has a pair of Hodgman Neoprene Wade Shoes on sale for $19.49, marked down from $54.99!

• Public Lands has its Columbia PFG Mesh Fish Flag Hat marked down from $30 to $17.97.

• Bass Pro marked down its Lew’s MACH Smash Baitcast Combo from $149 to $119.

DEEP DIVE 

The muddy water advantage: three zones for success

Applying my Three-Zone Strategy for muddy water success will improve your chances for bass in muddy water.

Zone 1: Clear water pockets

When clean water pours into a lake, bass can often be easy to find if you understand how they react and know where to look for them. The key isn't to fish the mud; it's to find pockets of clearer water that inevitably remain.

I mentioned that I used to hate fishing in muddy water. So, what changed?

I was out fishing a favorite pond of mine and ruing the muddy conditions, when I noticed some topwater commotion at the end of the pond where a culvert fed into the pond from another pond. 

As I approached the commotion, I noticed clean water spilling out of the culvert that ran under the road.

Suddenly, the water's surface exploded as shad skipped in every direction, including up.

I was using a black and blue Chatterbait and cast into the swirling clean water pouring out from the adjoining pond and immediately hooked up with a bass.

After an hour, I headed home with a cooler full, but more importantly, I began to understand that I could use muddy water to my advantage by finding small sections of clean water where all the fish were feeding.

Here's what you need to look for:

• inflowing culverts or creeks with cleaner water

• the backs of coves where clearer water gets trapped

• areas with heavy vegetation that filter out the mud

• shallow flats where the water clears first (lakes clear from the top down)

I've found that regardless of how muddy the water is, there are always some areas that will contain clearer water. Fast-moving stained water from the rain will often rush into a pond or reservoir and trap pockets of clear water in the backs of coves.

Zone 2: Structure-rich areas

Bass will hold tight to cover in muddy conditions. When muddy water combines with the slight rise in water levels brought on by rain, bass generally move shallow. They usually hold tightly to any form of underwater cover, like logs and stumps.

Why?

Because holding close to structure gives the bass a fixed point to gain its bearings. It’s kind of like a ballerina spinning—she fixes her eyes on an object in the room.

When a bass is swimming out in open muddy water, it doesn't have a sense of where it’s going because it can’t see anything. 

An Oklahoma State University study I recently discovered confirms what I've seen on the water for years—bass shift to feeding on bluegill rather than crayfish in muddy conditions.

Where do bluegill hang out? Around structure.

I target a few types of structure:

• docks and pilings

• laydowns and fallen trees

• rock piles and riprap

• any visible or submerged structure

Lakes clear from the top down, so even in extremely muddy water, the shallows will have a bit less color.

Add to this normal sunlight penetration, which warms the water and promotes food chain activity, and you have one of the few places in a muddy lake where bass can feed.

And trust me—even in very muddy water, they will feed.

Zone 3: Presentation adjustments

I've learned through years of experience that bass in muddy water feed more by feel than sight.

 Here are the three key baits I rely on in these conditions:

• a heavy spinnerbait  like the BOOYAH Tux & Tails with tandem Colorado blades that put off maximum vibration

• a jig with rattles like the Strike King Rattling Pro and a bulky trailer to move water

• a shallow crankbait with bold, contrasting colors like the Strike King Pro Model that you can bump into cover

One critical adjustment most anglers miss: SLOW DOWN. 

Bass won't chase far in muddy water, so your presentations need to be methodical and precise, giving the fish time to locate your bait through vibration and sound.

Bass will respond differently to muddy conditions in a lake that's normally clear than they will in a lake that's normally stained, and you have to consider this behavior when choosing lures.

I've had my best success with black and chartreuse, black and blue, and fluorescent colors in muddy conditions. These are textbook colors when fishing murky water because they are bold and can be seen by the bass even with less than 8” of visibility. 

In lakes that are normally clear, though, I've found that noisy baits often spook bass. This is when I shift to a plastic worm, a curly-tailed grub, or even a small crankbait.