Does the muddy water affect offshore fish? Just curious if that muddiness stays more in the upper part of the water column or blends all the way to the bottom. The water on the lakes here in OK was already muddy, then we got dumped on yesterday. Trying to determine if it is even worth going out this weekend. What are your thoughts, do you change anything when fishing deeper water or just do the regular jig/carloina rig.....

If it’s muddy I’m not fishing deep at all. Less light penetration in deeper water, less visibility, less comfort for the fish and often times they’ll just suspend inactively when the water is suddenly dirtied up. Dirty water will always make me fish shallow.

Fishing gets better in the shallows with a water rise. This means more food on the shoreline for all the shoreline species. The resident shallow water Bass will be after all of that in this new water. A small rise will still provide just stained water in the back of the coves near the dam.

Your deep water fish will not change their daily patterns of moving up a short distance to feed. It usually takes a couple of days for their other senses to kick in and for this change thrown at them to settle down. In a couple of days they will be right back on the feed bag on those slopes muddy or not. I truly believe the shallow water fish will be more aggressive during such a rise. Deep water seems to take longer for everything that the group of fish is use to; to get back to normal. So the deep water bite is slower to develop after the storms and the shallow water bite is immediate; but doesn't last long.

I am looking for research on deep water clearing up faster near the bottom. Not having any luck. We all know the hot weather and lots of sun clear the surface; but it seems we know very little about how quickly the lake gets back to normal on the bottom in 40 ft. of water. I would thank that it may be possible for deep water lakes to clear up on the bottom faster than the surface???

+1

Thanks for the feedback. Probably saved me a lot of wasted time trying to drag something off the bottom. Guess I will get the chatterbait ready to go and try and find them shallow.