Need help with fishing dirty water

[jrbdad]

I have been fishing the James river some lately. Seems like it rains day or so before I go each time. The water gets pretty dirty when this happens.
When it is dirty I us spinner bait, chatter bait, buzz bait and have tried a Carolina rig too. Not sure what color I should be using? Read that dark colors in dirty water, but have not even gotten bit on anything dark colored their.

[BigBass94]

Dark colors do work best in dirty water, and so do bright colors, such as: chartreuse, white, pink, orange, etc.. My experience with dirty water has been this: you either soak a bait, luck into a fish with something, or create a reaction strike. They're most likely not gonna chase a bait too far. I prefer to soak a bait or create a reaction strike; obviously. A great bait to soak is a big worm or a jig. Something that is bulky, so the fish can key in on the bait. If you want to create a reaction strike, I suggest a a bright spinnerbait, chatterbait, squarebill, even a lipless crankbait. The key with those baits is to bang it into something or, if you have grass, rip it out of there. Another tip is to use some scent on your bait. That'll help the fish track your bait and key in on it.

[jrbdad]

Thank you. I have been mainly using bright colors. Tried some dark with no luck.

Will keep tryin.

[DrewFlu33]

Fish will get right up next to stuff in dirty water, particularly if it's just turned dirty. Vertical cover seems to be the best (think dock pilings, sea walls, standing timber, etc) but experiment. Since it's on the river you're going to want to implement current breaks as well. With this in mind, in order to get bit on moving baits in muddy water, I've always had the best luck banging the moving bait off whatever cover I could. If you can't get moving baits to work, try flipping that cover, paying particular attention to how the current is hitting it. There's usually a current break directly above and directly below pieces of cover in current - don't neglect the one directly above, as that's one that's not as obvious. The standard advice of going to baits with lots of vibration and/or water displacement obviously applies. Whatever way you decide to attack it, cover is HUGE in muddy water.

If there's a lack of cover or you're not having luck fishing cover, there's almost always an area of much clearer water right next to the bank. Most of the time it's also only a few inches out from shore. Find a bank where there's good depth close to shore, and cast something up ONTO the shore. Slowly drag it in...a lot of times those fish will sit there with their nose right in that clearer water. Also a lot of times, they won't bite if you try to cast into that clear water zone. The dragging it in technique works really well.

If there's grass or weeds around, try fishing that. Grass/weeds will often sort of filter that water and make it slightly clearer than surrounding areas, I guess. Or maybe it just creates a current break that allows the silt to settle out. Whatever it is, there's usually clearer water there and bass will congregate there.

It seems very rare to get one to hit it in open water unless it's been muddy for a few days when it seems like the fish start getting used it.

Last thing: if you can find areas with clearer water running in, work the area where the water comes in first...once again, fish will often have their noses right up in that clearer water. If that doesn't work, then check out the mud lines. This is the one scenario I can think of where I would expect to have good luck in "open water" and even then, the way the water flows often dictates that mud lines will relate to cover that breaks the current up.

[jrbdad]

Thanks Drewflu33. Those are something I haven't tried or even thought of.

[Walkabout7781]

If you try casting a worm onshore, point the rod straight at it and reel slowly. Anything else will make it jump out away from shore. You can cast a 10" Powerworm a pretty good distance without any weight, which will let it lay on top of the grass & stuff, further reducing the problems with getting it into the water right at the water's edge.