Reading water color for more crankbait walleyes

[fishhawk2700]

Well I have learned something new. I will stay out of the clear water. I have only trolled a few times and just got lucky and caught a couple. I plan on trolling a lot more this year so I enjoy your article

Don't ever be afraid to fish "clear" water. Just because the water doesn't have the "correct" stain to doesn't mean that you can't catch a walleye on a crankbait. A walleyes pea brain tells them to do two things, eat, make little walleyes. Walleyes, when hungry, can and will leave their prefered temp, oxygen level, light level to feed. Trust your eletronics. If there are fish there, try it, before you drive X amount of miles the find the "correct" stain. This forum has some great info, just be sure to make decisions based on more than one source. I would suggest that maybe you book a trip with a captain that runs the type of program you want to run, get out there and question the **** out of him.

[itsbob]

I think that advice about avoiding water is in early spring when water is still in 30s and 40s.And,clean water that time is usually difficult to even find.But if you do have clean water,it is usually a couple degrees colder than any nearby stained water.A great place to fish is where that transition of color is located if you can find it.And yes,trust your electronics.If marking fish,give it a try.A few years ago was fishing in early spring and asked Captain Keith from pooh bear charters where to fish.He told me to stay out of the clean water.Not catching there with the cranks he was running.

[slimshady]

Don't ever be afraid to fish "clear" water. Just because the water doesn't have the "correct" stain to doesn't mean that you can't catch a walleye on a crankbait. A walleyes pea brain tells them to do two things, eat, make little walleyes. Walleyes, when hungry, can and will leave their prefered temp, oxygen level, light level to feed. Trust your eletronics. If there are fish there, try it, before you drive X amount of miles the find the "correct" stain. This forum has some great info, just be sure to make decisions based on more than one source. I would suggest that maybe you book a trip with a captain that runs the type of program you want to run, get out there and question the **** out of him.

To be clear, nothing in fishing is ever absolute. There are always caveats and exceptions. Like I said in the article, the Central basin is one of those exceptions. I have caught tons of big walleyes in clear water in the Central basin. Mostly on spoons, but that's because that's what we generally run when fishing for Steelies.

I also said that there are times when we can't find any stained water, and we are forced to fish in the clean. In those situations, I go very natural and fish my boards really far from the boat. We can usually scratch out a few doing that.

I also mentioned low light conditions. This could be early or late, or even just dark dreary days. That said, on most days, if I have the choice to fish muddy, clear or stained, I will always try the stained water first and it rarely ever fails.

Example: Last year over by Fermi, we were marking fish like crazy, but we could not buy a bite. A few junk fish here and there, but no walleyes. With all of the marks I was seeing, it was hard to leave, however, the water was just too clean for my liking. I decided to pull lines and run South. After a few miles, I could see the color changing. I told my crew that we were about to catch them. There was zero doubt in my mind based on the water color. I went a couple miles into the greenish water and set up. Within a couple minutes we had a 4 lb'er on and it never stopped the rest of the day. That was just one example of many over the 40+ years I have been fishing this system.

[fishhawk2700]

To be clear, nothing in fishing is ever absolute. There are always caveats and exceptions. Like I said in the article, the Central basin is one of those exceptions. I have caught tons of big walleyes in clear water in the Central basin. Mostly on spoons, but that's because that's what we generally run when fishing for Steelies.

I also said that there are times when we can't find any stained water, and we are forced to fish in the clean. In those situations, I go very natural and fish my boards really far from the boat. We can usually scratch out a few doing that.

I also mentioned low light conditions. This could be early or late, or even just dark dreary days. That said, on most days, if I have the choice to fish muddy, clear or stained, I will always try the stained water first and it rarely ever fails.

Example: Last year over by Fermi, we were marking fish like crazy, but we could not buy a bite. A few junk fish here and there, but no walleyes. With all of the marks I was seeing, it was hard to leave, however, the water was just too clean for my liking. I decided to pull lines and run South. After a few miles, I could see the color changing. I told my crew that we were about to catch them. There was zero doubt in my mind based on the water color. I went a couple miles into the greenish water and set up. Within a couple minutes we had a 4 lb'er on and it never stopped the rest of the day. That was just one example of many over the 40+ years I have been fishing this system.

This was exactly my point. There are a lot of factors involved in determining when and where to fish, and we could discuss determining factors until we are blue in the face. Your thread is a very good piece of info for a newbie to store away. If you have been pulling cranks that long, I'm sure you must remember pre quagga/zebra muscle days. When the lake was quiet, it all had the perfect stain. Best bite was midday.

[slimshady]

The good news is if you can find that perfect color mid-day still rocks! The photos in my original article were all taken mid-day and it got better as the day went on.

[rcolson29]

Nice article, and appreciate you sharing the alternative satellite imagery site!

We were fishing west of the islands last year late March on the first day of our trip, and the water was definitely too dirty. We only had a couple hours to fish and marking plenty so hung with it. What surprised me was how good the late evening bite became in that dirty water. If memory recalls we ended with 8, and many came off a black and gold deep husky jerk. Guess it just had the right contrast in that muddy water. Having said that I won't intentionally seek out that type of water. Definitely prefer the chalky green as described.

[itsbob]

Have heard similar success early in season catching later in the day.Think the sun warms up that dirty water near the surface and makes the fish more active.I will have to start using that website Slimshady recommended too, regarding using satellite photos and GPS position to find the preferred water color.

[slimshady]

Nice article, and appreciate you sharing the alternative satellite imagery site!

We were fishing west of the islands last year late March on the first day of our trip, and the water was definitely too dirty. We only had a couple hours to fish and marking plenty so hung with it. What surprised me was how good the late evening bite became in that dirty water. If memory recalls we ended with 8, and many came off a black and gold deep husky jerk. Guess it just had the right contrast in that muddy water. Having said that I won't intentionally seek out that type of water. Definitely prefer the chalky green as described.

Thanks. When it comes to "dirty water" there are also levels within that category. I have done well in water that looked dirty to the eyes, but I could still see my prop. Here's a photo of water that was "dirty", yet we still caught some and I could still see my prop.



The other scenario when you can sometimes catch lots of walleyes in water that would normally be considered "too-dirty" is in the spring when you get warm surface water being pushed into shore by wind. Especially in the afternoon. I have seen times when the main lake might be 38-39 degrees, but the water near-shore with wind blowing in might be 8-10 degrees warmer than that. The baitfish will stack up in the warm water and the walleyes will follow, and they will sometimes be up in water less than 10 feet deep. As I mentioned, for this to happen, it requires wind to be blowing towards shore. The harder it blows and the longer it does that, the more the warm water stacks up. Unfortunately, the waves can also get pretty nasty in those areas, so it isn't the most comfortable situation to fish.

[cohoho]

All good stuff. I’ll throw one last thing in… Throw a fish hawk or depth raider down to the depth you mark (and get bit)most fish then just target those temps as best you can. Killed them last April doing that. Never really paid too much attention to anything else.

Last week of March is the trip this year for the Crooked Hook. I can’t wait! February and March have got to be the slowest months of the year!!!

Thanks to everyone for the great reading!

[West Basin]

Another thing I mention on this site once or twice a year when I give a "scuba diving" response to questions posted on here. The surface water visibility is not always an indication of the visibility of the rest of the water column.

I'm seen a variety of conditions while scuba diving the Lake. I've seen clear surface water (15 foot+ vis) that turned to 6-8 foot mid depth and was only 3-4 near the bottom. I've seen surface vis at 6-8 that cleared up to 12+ mid depth and near the bottom. I've seen 4-5 vis at the surface and 10+ at the bottom. 6-8 at the surface, 4-6 mid-depth, and near zero at the bottom. And consistent visibility from surface to bottom. There is a lot of variety throughout the season and location.

Remember that surface visibility is not always a tell tale of what the rest of the water column visibility is.

That being said, if you can link surface visibility to catch success, then there is a connection and that helps put walleye in the box.