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.

[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.

[Fishing Tiger]

We definitely have seen the same thing.
I always thought it was because the storm scattered the baitfish and the Walleye had no bait balls to school under. So they spread out chasing the smaller pods of bait.

I too am curios what others think.

[Fishing Tiger]

Like Coho we watch our Fish Hawk for temp changes. Surface temp is good most of the time in the Spring. We also have found the wind pushing warm waters, bait, and fish shallow. But the Fish Hawk helps when the opposite occurs also (even more so). That is a cold wind can chill the surface temps but there is a band of warm water between the top and the colder bottom.

Like has been said many times, trust your electronics, this includes temp gauges. It is amazing what the newer stuff does. I sometimes feel like I am on a floating computer. It takes study and experience but the new electronics really work. They can't catch fish but they can give you an edge!

BTW if you follow the warmer water shallow, don't be surprised if you pick up some Brown Leapers. Some still consider them trash, but times sure have changed in that regard. We look at them as bonuses. We always catch several Fish Ohio smallies every March when we chase the warm water and Walleye shallow.

[C_fish]

Great topic/discussion thank you!
My question may be related to color and temp.
In the central basin, open water, warm season fishing, I have noticed that the walleye seem to scatter after big storms roll though.
Seems to me, although I don’t fish enough consecutive days, that it takes a few days before the schools regroup and sometimes they have moved some distance.
I was curious what others thought or observed was happening in this period?