People always head out on the water hoping for optimal conditions. The perfect day for fishing in my opinion is an overcast day, warm front, and stained water. But how often do we get this perfect day? Here in the great lakes, you really CAN'T have that perfect day. The water is permanently gin clear throughout almost the entire lake. Does that mean we stop fishing? No way! There's plenty of ways to get through the "clear water blues".

First of all, I'll focus on shallow water situations. When fishing shallow, clear water it becomes a much harder game. Spooking fish is quite possible. The first important thing to do is be quiet. Although casual conversation doesn't spook fish, scraping feet, moving tackle boxes or rods and any other "normal noise" from the boat can easily spook the fish into lockjaw or deep into cover. Never fear though, usually if you stay quiet and wait patiently the fish will come back (if you do anything by accident). Carpeted decks are a valuable additive when fishing crystal clear water. I guess I should mention that by clear water I mean water with visibility of about 14" and up. Movement is not the only thing that spooks fish. They feel vibrations from gas motors, so just cut the motor fairly far back from the areas you want to fish and coast in or use the electric trolling motor if available. But wait, the trolling motor can also spook fish. Keep it on a low setting, and if you can, keep it running constantly on the low speed. A subtle hum seems to be better for fishing than a motor that is constantly turning on and off. I also try to wear neutral colours like tan or white when I'm fishing in these situations, but that's not exactly a must.

Now, we've covered how to approach these areas, but now, where to fish and what to use?? First off, if you haven't already, get a pair of good polarized sunglasses. These are a great asset to the clear water fisherman. If you can't see the fish themselves, at least you can see underwater structure that would normally be unseen due to solar glare. Fish obvious cover that you can see. Wherever you would normally fish, just fish there the same. BUT, you may want to either downsize lures or use a quieter type of technique, like pitching and flipping. Use finesse baits and make sure lures don't make too much noise upon entry. If you get good enough, you can put your finesse baits right in front of cruising fish, and they'll eat it right up! There's nothing more exciting than that! Lures with lots of vibration, rattles or scent are most likely not necessary to enduce strikes. Try to stay as natural as possible with your lure selection. Spooks, finesse worms, senkos or downsized spinnerbaits or jerkbaits will most likely do the trick. As far as colour goes, I would use white, black, blue, or a mix of them. Sometimes red or chartreuse can pay off, especially if the fish are active. On spinnerbaits use willow blades, as they give off more flash than vibration.

In depths of more than 15 feet, quietness becomes less important, unless fish are close to the surface. Lure selection will now vary, but I like to make long casts with white or chartreuse tandem spinnerbaits, drag white or smoke coloured tube jigs, or use carolina rigged 4" plastic worms. Dropshotting can also be a deadly deep, clear water strategy. I dropshot finesse worms, senkos or sassy shads 18" off bottom most of the time. Here you can more than likely run your trolling motor off and on if you must, or even just anchor or use a driftsock to go over the structure. Unless you can still see bottom, a depth finder is very important to find humps, subtle differences in the bottom, or the thermocline.

Although it is not the "ideal situation", fishing clear water doesn't have to be a tedious task. Just keep it quiet and stay natural and 80% of the time it will pay off with big dividends. I hope this article was informative, as I hope all of my articles are. If you wish to contact me, just e-mail me at [email protected]. I will be happy to answer questions or just chat about bass fishing in general!