clear water fishing

[bassinbob]

I discovered a nice large lake I want to fish this year. It's five miles long by 2 miles wide. It's about 80 ft at the deepest and it has extremely clear water. It's an electric motor only water supply lake. I have never fished a clear lake like this and was wondering how to fish it. It has hardy any shallow water as it abruply drops down to deep water a few feet from shore. I don't as of yet know if there are any weeds or other forms of cover. I did find out you can see to about 30 ft down. It holds lmb and smb and other species as well. I don't know what the forage is. Ideas are welcome.

[bamabassman]

JIGS, SHAKY HEADS, are my first opions here. white spinners too. that is all i got right now. jsut think SLOOOOOWWWWWWW.

[cassidyta]

I fished a similar lake this morning. Small, deep and gin clear.
I usually stick with wacky rigged senkos, IKA's, and spinner/chatter baits.

If you can't find weeds, then look for holes and mounds. They will usually hold fish on the edges. I prefer to fish down hill on both. I will cast to the high points and ease the bait to the lower elevations. I like to move the bait down by hopping it.

A very clear lake is a great place for the swimbaits that you have been wanting to start throwing.

[Deacon]

First define "extremely clear" Are we talking 20+ f of vis? I fish some vineyard ponds that in summer you can see down 20+ ft. I havent found any of the fish to be line shy at all. I do however throw nothing but floro(maybe for its a confidence thing) but NONE of the 100s of fish I caught shy away. I throw anything from 6lb-25lb test. A variety of bais from cranking, swimbaits, dropshot/splitshot, senkos, jigs. I dont believe in fishing snall baits. A bass is a bass and will be opportunistic feeders.

[cassidyta]

He said he could see at 30', so I think he is talking gin clear.

I do have some lakes, where I feel that line size makes a difference. In Lake Miramar, I can see my drop shot weight in 30'+. Maybe it is just me being brainwashed, but I do better with light line and smaller baits.

[walkeraviator]

I have never fished any water that clear, but from what i see online... Tubes, Drop Shot, swim jigs, and swim baits... all on flourocarbon line seems to be teh ticket under these condition...

[Deacon]

Originally Posted by cassidyta

He said he could see at 30', so I think he is talking gin clear.

I do have some lakes, where I feel that line size makes a difference. In Lake Miramar, I can see my drop shot weight in 30'+. Maybe it is just me being brainwashed, but I do better with light line and smaller baits.

LOL...i just didnt fully read.

[danielbasspro]

You need to get a light spiinning rod with 6 pound test fluorocarbon and throw weightless flukes in watermelon red. Try a wacky senko, dropshot with a roboworm straight tail, Money minnow, white spinnerbait, swimgjig. You just need really light line

[MallenManson]

Throw anything you want Bob. No secret to fishing clear water, but what I lean towards, just because they're the baits I like to throw are bluegill patterned spinnerbaits w chrome blades, lipless cranks, floating & shallow cranks, slip shot rigged soft baits and of course, top water baits. Jitterbug and Torpedos are used alot by me. Frogs, of course if there's lily pads
The most common line I use is 17# Mono, either clear or lo vis green

[Rebbasser]

I'd go with natural colors and finesse applications like a drop shot or shakey head. After that experiment and see if something else will work.

[Tavery5]

A couple of things that have helped me in fishing clear water lakes, use as long a rod as practical for the baits you are fishing, this will help with longer casts and help keep some distance between you and area that you would like to fish. The other thing that can be over looked sometimes is the fact that even though the water is very clear there is still very little light penetration at 80ft, this may effect the types of colors you choose to use. If fishing at 80ft, I would still choose to use darker colors, blue/black, darker greens, browns and such. Just my .02

[carolina-rig-01]

The fish will relate to something, just like in any other body of water. The fact that there isn't much cover or structure on this lake will most likely mean that when you find something irregular they could be ganged up on it. Maybe it's a clump of rocks that are bigger than normal for the lake, or maybe an area that drops off a little slower or quicker than the rest of the area. It could be anything that is different than the rest of the area your in. They still need something to relate to regardless of how abundant cover is. In clear water more natural colors are usually the rule. Watermelons, greenpumpkins, shad colors, and ect. However once you get into deeper water even though it's clear there is a certain amount of light that isn't reaching deeper water so you might want to go to some darker colors like maybe a black and blue jig with a green pumpkin trailer, or maybe a little more bold crawdad color. Shaky heads are a good bait in clear water like Bama said. Also dropshots and othe finesse techniques can get a lot of bites. Don't rule out carolina rigs, jigs, and spinnerbaits in the wind.

[Embrey]

light line is gonna be normal answer here,which i do too,but i have personally witnessed my ole man in crystal water catch just as many or sometimes more fish with some 30lb braid he found on sale. and its old and frayed and turned white. never bothered the fish at all. heck, he just sent me pics of a 8 and a 7 lb he caught in the same day tuesday

[Ebbetsguy]

BINGO! Welcome to my world Bob, my main spot is in Jim Thorpe PA, Smaller TM, gin clear water. Any lure you are comfortable will work, finding them is key
Look for rock piles, and creek beds, especially those closely related to a point and weed beds, Find a rock pile on a point and your in, especially with a jig/plastic combo that looks like a crayfish
The sun will put them deeper, the crazy thing on these lakes and stripping pits in PA, catch your first good fish on the north side of a point, on some rocks, most of the next few hours every point you find will set up the same way, these fish are very easy to pattern , most depends on the intensity and position of the sun. Fishing this , that or the other thing is not the answer here, its finding the active fish, and know that if you lock in on a pattern and your pulling in 12 inch bass, then there is another pattern, same day same lake that will give you better fish, if that’s what you want
PM FISHING; Night time, top water fishing these lakes is the most fun a man can have with his pants on!
Find weed beds you would normally fish in the day and have at least 2 rods hooked up
Rod One; Black Jitterbug
Rod two : 12 inch black worm, trigged weight less ( I Use Mann’s Jelly worms)
Get that Jitterbug over those weed beds, get a slow blub, blub,blub (round) sound going and hold on. If you get a few aggressive strikes but they miss the bug, throw a worm over same area and work it slow, very SLOW,
On nights with a bright full moon, you will find the fish in the same areas, but like on sunny days, it's been my experience they will be deeper into the weeds themselves, Generally at night where you catch the first one ( top or a bit into the weeds) all your other fish will come from the same

[carolina-rig-01]

The deepest and clearest lake I can use to speak for my experience is Table Rock. It's absurd just how deep and clear this lake is. Here finding subtle differences is usually key to not only catching big fish but sometimes finding subtle differences is key just to get bit at all. The thing is, the majority of anglers don't feel comfortable fishing deep water, they only feel comfortable fishing cover that is visible or just fishing shallow water in general. However it's not a secret that fishing deep is a big part of fishing clear water so a lot of these guys will move out and fish deeper even though they might struggle with it. What happens is they aren't extremely good at finding subtle sweetspots because they don't spend much time doing it and they end up hitting a lot of the deeper spots that are more obvious and easier to find. So it can be worth your trouble to find smaller changes that the average guy would overlook because these fish will often be less beat up than fish that are on community holes.

Also, just because clear water often means deep fishing don't just assume you have to fish deep to catch them. I don't know how many times I fished tournaments on Table Rock and the majority of guys spent the whole day out deep and the winning bag came in less than 10 feet of water. These fish will move up and down just like fish on any other body of water, they just may not stay shallow for as long or come shallow as often. Also when the water is cooler, the shallow bit may really turn on when the sun is out because unlike in the summer when the fish avoid the sunlight, in the cooler months they may tend to come up in the shallow water where the sun has warmed it up.

[Fish-N-Fool Lures]

All I can say is Dropshot, DROPSHOT, DrOpShOt

[Backwater Charlie]

If I was in your situations, I'd probably hit deeper cover with 6" - 7.5" light colored ribbontail worms with a 1/4oz bullet weight.

[Showda]

A trick I learned to fish a small really clear lake near my home is to take the jig, worm, or whatever you are going to be fishing. Find some water shallow enough to see the bottom really good. Lower the bait of choice to the bottom. The color that is hardest for you to see when its on the bottom is a great color to start with.

[Ebbetsguy]

Why? What's the logic behind this please?

[carolina-rig-01]

Originally Posted by Ebbetsguy

Why? What's the logic behind this please?

I have heard several pros say pretty much the same thing. The thinking behind it is that if you are using a bottom bait like a jig, worm, or whatever, then trying to match your bait to the bottom will keep the fish getting too good of a look at the bait in clear water. They will still be able to locate the bait and even see it a little bit but they won't get a real good look at it. It is kinda like the rule of thumb a lot of guys use when choosing spinnerbait colors in clear water. If the sun is out use more silver and transparent colors, if it's cloudy or there is a lot of wind then go with more of a white because these choices will allow your bait to blend in more with the surface of the water. This will help keep a fish from getting a good long look at your bait. It's not so much of a making the bait look natural thing but more of a keeping the fish from being able to see a bait really well type of thing. I have used both the jig color and spinnerbait rule in the past and at times I still do if I am having a hard time deciding which colors I want to throw, and I have had success with choosing colors this way.

If you think about it though, if you pick a bait color that matches the bottom it's usually going to be some type of a natural color which is usually a rule of thumb in clear water anyways.

[keithdog]

From what I've read, lighter lines, smaller natural colored applications, Crankbaits without rattles, and long casts. I read an article on fishing lakes like this and the guy used a controlled drift with his trolling motor to keep the bait well behind the boat using a watermellon colored Senko and tubes dragged slowly along the bottom.

[Kicksomebass]

STRUCTURE. Bass will find themselves exposed in real clear water so find some sort of structure. It can be as simple as a rock pile in 50 ft of water, or a downed tree. Bass naturally need some sort of 'protection' and they will find it... guaranteed.

[mrmuskie5]

Fluorocarbon,fluorocarbon and oh yeah fluorocarbon lol. and if you dont know what bait fish is swimming in the lake, find out and base your bait selection on them. if you dont fish swim baits... you should. oh yeah i fish a similar style lake for muskies and catch quite a few a year fishing with 65# braid and fluoresent baits????? soooo its all in your head really. good luck this year!