| |
However, on the way back to the ramp, I
was blessed with one of those rare strokes of luck reserved for
those who never seem to have any.
The gentleman's name was Leon McDaniel
and I spied him anchored in the middle of an open flat a few
hundred yards off the main river channel. Watching him as I motored by,
the sympathy of a defeated
comrade-in-arms prevailed. Suddenly, Leon snapped his rod up into a
tight arc as a fish took his lure. A few
moments later, the angler lipped a fine three pound bass. Totally
amazed, I cut off the engine, dropped an
anchor over into the dark, clay- stained waters and decided to play
spectator for a while. Placing his catch
in the livewell, Leon then performed some adjustments to his lure.
Turning about in the boat, he made a long
cast out to the side and slightly upstream into the current flow. With a
very slow retrieve, he worked the lure
along in the moving water. In a few short seconds, he boated another
fish. And, then, another. And, then,
another!
Realizing that I was watching, Leon
McDaniel, the gentleman that he was, wave me over. By now, I was
feeling true pain and did not need a second invitation. What I learned
during the next hour was the most
amazing thing I had ever seen in 20 years of bass angling.
Leon was fishing a jig. No, nothing
special; just a half ounce lead-head jig with a bit of lime-green hair
for a
body. And, he was fishing it in an eight MPH current and some of the
muddiest water imaginable. Too
stunned to participate, I sat and watched that man catch and release 42
bass.
*******************************************************************
Muddy water has long been the nemesis of
bass anglers. That it appears to make fishing difficult would be
an understatement. Many think that the best solution is to throw in the
towel and get home in time for the
second half of the ball game. However, there ARE productive ways to take
bass from even the muddiest of
waters. The key is that, under conditions of reduced visibility, the
fish depend a great deal more on sound,
rather than sight, to detect and locate their prey. They, also, seem to
prefer specific locations for holding
and feeding.
Learning to effectively approach muddy
water conditions usually takes a good bit of trial and error, resulting
in much waste of valuable fishing time. Your writer was no exception to
this rule. However, we HAVE found
ways which will produce, some exceptionally well. During discussions of
the subject with other experienced
bass anglers, we discovered even more techniques which are valuable. By
sharing these, it is hoped that
you will be able to add another productive dimension to your outdoor
experiences.
The story about Leon McDaniel is special
in a number of ways. First, it totally, and without question,
dispelled any preconceived or rumored notion that bass will not feed in
muddy water. Second, it proved that
no special, complex techniques are required. And, third, it
demonstrated, all too well, that we anglers often
defeat ourselves because we do not, or will not, adjust to the
conditions.
Leon had two specific locations that he
fished under high, muddy water conditions. One was the flat we told
of. It had a depth of approximately six feet, with the down-current side
gradually sloping to ten. Under normal
conditions, there was little, if any, current flow that far from the
main channel. The key to this spot was gravel
and mussel shells. The bottom was hard and clean and the reverse,
down-current slope provided a slight
eddy water condition near the bottom. The jig was heavy enough to make
its way to the bottom in the current
and, with a slow, tight- line retrieve, could be felt well enough to
detect a strike. The real key, however, was
that the lure banged across the rough bottom like a marble rolling down
the face of a wash board. Since
visibility was less than zero in the reddened waters, it was obvious to
even the most casual observer that the
clatter of the lure allowed the bass to home in on it. (It was no fluke,
as we have now used this technique in a
number of waters with success).
His second 'honey hole' was also back off
the main channel in a back-water flat. However, this one was
slightly different. The depth was the same six feet, except there was a
ditch dredged across the flat to
accommodate the laying of a gas pipeline. The ditch was about 15 feet
wide and ten feet deep. The current
flow was exceptionally strong here and two anchors were often required
to hold the boat in place. Leon would
anchor about 30 feet above the ditch and cast parallel to it. The lure
was then allowed to make its way
downstream to the ditch and fall off into it. Again, the bottom was very
hard and rough, and the jig made a
good bit of noise as it washed along with the current flow. Rarely did
the lure make it past the lip of that
ditch, as it would be readily inhaled just before it dropped off. While
Largemouths were the predominate
residents of this location, Crappie, White Bass and freshwater Drum also
teemed. The fish were apparently
holding below the lip of the ditch, where the current eddied as it broke
across the top. Again, since visibility
was nil, the sound of the lure against the rough, hard bottom was used
to find the lure.
Around heavy cover, such as logs and tree
blow-downs, in muddy water, bass will hold very tight against the
cover feature. In periods of poor visibility, this undoubtedly gives
them a reference point and a sense of
security. Additionally, they will be shallow, possibly trying to be near
to the light so they can at least see a
bit. In this situation, a bass will not move far to take a lure.
Consequently, we must drag it by him as close
as possible. Coupling this with the need for the lure to make some
constant sound for the bass to be able to
locate it, we have the exact reason that a spinner bait is the ideal
lure for cover areas in highly stained
waters.
I vividly recall the best spinner bait
'artist' I ever saw. His name was James Parker and he was a two-time
National Champion using the blade lure. Parker had two prerequisites for
a bass fishing location: shallow
brush tops and the muddiest water available. Personally, at the time, I
would never have fished water that
stained, but the man convinced me real quick. His favorite lure was a
standard size one-half ounce single
spin, with a white skirt and a number five Colorado blade.
As James explained, "Bass in shallow
water are active, feeding bass. However, they are also easy to spook,
since they can easily see you. Highly stained water virtually eliminates
that and seems to give them a false
sense of security. All you have to do is locate some cover, such as
brush or logs, in shallow water and, if the
bass are there, they are a cinch to catch. The only secret to it is that
you must fish very slowly and cover the
area well. The lure almost has to bump them on the nose."
When we asked Parker about the potential
of other lures in these types of areas, he replied, "In muddy
water, we want to keep the lure right in against the cover at all times
and shallow. Therefore, the spinner bait
has to be the only logical choice, since we can exercise absolute
control over it. You really can't do that with
any other lure. Also, the sound factor is important and that blade makes
a very seductive throb. Retrieving
the spinner bait so that it rubs along the sides of the logs and limbs
will also help catch the attention of the
fish."
Parker advises that two other locations
are also productive when the waters are muddy. These, the reader
should note, parallel what we learned from Leon McDaniel.
"I like to find a rough, gravel
bottom, near a drop-off and with current flow," he went on. "A
spinner bait is still
my first choice. I fish it slowly, trying to stay in continual contact
with the bottom, but fast enough to keep
the blade turning. I think the bass come directly to the sound. The
strikes are not savage; in fact, they are
usually very light. Most of the time I note that the spinner bait simply
gets a bit 'heavy', or the blade just
stops turning. I expect the bass follows the sound to its source and
just tries to suck the lure in when he
thinks he's close enough."
James Parker's other recommended spot is
an area of rip- rap, such as might be found along the side of an
adjacent highway or a bridge crossing. If there is current flow
effecting the rocks, you can be sure that the
bass will be there to feed on the moving water. While he was still
partial to the blade bait, Parker advised that
a jig and rind combination, or a slowly retrieved crank plug, also works
well. "The main things," he stated,
"are to keep whatever lure you are using in contact with the rocks
and fish it slowly. Since the rip-rap will
undoubtedly slope downwards, you may have to experiment a bit to
determine the correct depth. Normally,
the muddier the water, the shallower the bass will be. Also, concentrate
near the edge of the current flow,
just inside the eddy water line."
If the body of water has been muddied
from the flow of a main river channel or other large tributary, the
mouths of small feeder creeks should be evaluated. Quite often, they may
still be flowing clear. If this
condition is found, look for the mud line, where the clear and muddy
waters converge. Bass will lie just in
the edge of the stained water, no doubt for concealment, and feed into
the clearer areas. These are the types
of places to find the bass breaking on the surface as they chase bait
fish. If the feeder creek appears muddy,
but has no discernible current, venture back into it a way. Often, the
rising, muddy waters of the main lake
will have pushed into the creek for some distance and there may be
clearer water further back.
A similar location can often be found in
the back of large coves. If the stained water is being forced into the
cove from the main part of the lake or river, there is a good chance
that the back areas of the cove may be
clear, or only murky. Bass have a natural instinct to move shallow under
rising water conditions to partake of
the food available in these freshly flooded areas. Look for cover, such
as brush and blow-downs, and fish
them hard. If the water is muddy or highly stained, use Parker's spinner
bait tactics. If there happens to be
a reasonable degree of clarity, a plastic worm will probably be the
ticket.
Another potential muddy water location
brings to mind an outstanding fishing trip on Toledo Bend Lake in
East Texas. Hurricane-spawned rains had turn the majority of the lake
into a virtual solid-looking mass of
suspended dirt. Everything was muddy, even the feeder creeks. My
partner, Rodney Williams, salvaged our
day, however, when he remembered an area of flowing springs way in the
back of a creek arm. Under normal
conditions, the way to locate these was to slowly cruise the area and
watch the surface temperature gauge.
The water temperature of the spring was in the mid-50's and it would
quickly fluctuate the meter reading.
However, under the water conditions we were facing that day, the
springs, particularly one large one, were
visually discernible. The mixing of the clear and the turbid waters
showed up like a lightly boiling cauldron.
Having fished these springs before (in
the Winter, he said, when the springs were warmer than the
surrounding waters), Rodney came up with a productive lure choice his
first time out. Taking a silver and
black Bagley crank plug, my friend cast across the patch of mixing water
and into the far muddy area. He
cranked it down hard with a fast retrieve and, when it entered the
spring expulsion, he stopped it cold and let
it float up. Float up it did, but the buoyant plug didn't travel far.
Suddenly, he was on to a nice fish. Nearly
every retrieve through the roiling water produced a strike and, on
occasions, it turned out to be a nice
Crappie or White Bass. (This, like the experiences with Leon McDaniel,
tend to point out that when times
get tough, the fish, regardless of type, seem to be drawn to similar
feeding locations.)
There was a fairly large concentration of
bass in this choice area so, after catching and releasing a goodly
number, we began to experiment with retrieves and lure types. A
vibrating crank plug, specifically a Cordell
Spot with its lead slug rattle chamber, worked exceptionally well.
However, as many bass took it in the
muddy water as did when it came across the clearer area. Likewise, a
Rebel Wee R, with a noise-making
rattle chamber, took fish from the stained areas. Silent plastic worms,
and the 'rattle-less' Bagley, only
scored when they entered the less murky water. This reinforces the fact
that the bass can, and do, find a
lure based on the sound it makes.
An interesting sideline fact about muddy
water bass is that they seem confused and disoriented by the lack
of visibility. This is evidenced by three of their responses (or lack
thereof). First, bass taken in muddy water
rarely, if ever, jump. Second, they will make very short and powerful
surges and generally run in small circles
near the spot that they were hooked. Possibly, this is because they
can't see well and don't really know
which way to flee. These facts are of assistance to the angler,
especially if he hooks a trophy. He doesn't
have to apply too much pressure, knowing that the bass is not going to
run far before he turns, and generally
can expect that the fish is not going to jump and throw the lure. A
third oddity is that, when released, the
bass usually swims directly back to and under the boat. I would surmise
that he is probably moving towards
the nearest 'structure' feature he can see, that being the boat.
Muddy water bassin' is
sort of a 'mind over mud' game for the angler.
But, once you have that first success, it will no longer be feared. |
