Key Takeaways
- Fishing success decreases for practically all kinds of gamefish when the water is brown to milky looking, especially for species that hunt primarily by sight.
- The finest lures for fishing in muddy water are those that vibrate or emit sounds or easily audible sound waves.
- The best fishing lures for muddy waters include spinnerbaits, wobbling jigs, crankbaits with rattling chambers, and crankbaits or other swimming plugs that produce a characteristic wobble.
- The ideal lure color for muddy water is white or chartreuse. Pearl is also a good color to use, especially in soft-bodied lures.
- Largemouth bass in particular are more likely to be captured in muddy water than any other of the most widely caught freshwater species.
The Best Lures and Best Lure Color for Muddy Water Fishing
Best lure colors for muddy water
There’s a good chance that the water where you fish looks like coffee and cream if it has recently rained a lot. As a result, you might be curious about the best lures for muddy water fishing and the best lure color.
The Affect on Various Species
Without a doubt, when the water is brown to milky looking, fishing success decreases for practically all kinds of game fish. This is especially true for species that hunt primarily by sight. This includes seatrout, redfish, flounder, and striped bass in saltwater as well as trout, salmon, pike, walleye, and the majority of panfish in freshwater. To get a strike on most of these fish in dirty water, you practically have to place a bait right on their noses. When the watercolor is really bad, some species—like flounder, trout, and salmon—are almost not worth fishing for.
Catfish, which mostly rely on smell to identify food, are also impacted, albeit less so, but they aren’t the best fish to use as lure targets in any case. Largemouth bass in particular are more likely to be captured in muddy water than any other of the most widely caught freshwater species. This is due to the fact that they are very aggressive, ambush predators, and skilled at using their lateral line to locate victims.
Noise and Vibration Are Keys
The finest lures for fishing in muddy water are those that vibrate or emit sounds or easily audible sound waves. The best fishing lures for muddy waters include spinnerbaits, wobbling jigs (also known as “Chatterbaits”), crankbaits with rattling chambers, and crankbaits or other swimming plugs that produce a characteristic wobble. Bass and redfish respond best to spinnerbaits and wobbling jigs. For bass, walleye, and stripers, crankbaits are ideal. For river salmon, wide-wobble trolling plugs work well.
Use a Bright Color
Divergent viewpoints exist regarding the ideal colors to utilize in any situation due to the remarkable variety of hues produced by lure producers. According to my experience, the ideal lure color for muddy water is white or chartreuse. When it’s clear that fish won’t be using their vision as their main method of locating my lure, I gravitate toward those colors.
With the water is slightly dirty but not too unclean, which is frequently the case when pond fishing, I choose the fairly distinguishable color chartreuse. However, there are other variations or resemblances to white, such as pearl. Pearl is one of my favorite materials, especially in soft-bodied lures. I also like pearl bodies paired with chartreuse tails and possibly chartreuse jigheads. In murky water, a pearl with a hint of iridescence or sparkle is also preferable but not necessary.
The Best Lure for Muddy Water
Which lures you choose to use to capture bass should depend on the purity of the water. Because fish can’t see as well in dark water as they can in clear water, subtle lures, and finesse techniques won’t be as effective as moving baits.
The best lures for murky water are those that move and vibrate a lot, make noise, or stir up the surface of the water.
I’ll describe a few of my favorite muddy water fishing lures below.
How Fish “See” in Muddy Water
Fish see, of course, with their eyes. They use a variety of senses to locate their prey, however not just that one.
Additionally, they employ their lateral line, which runs along their head and body.
Bass can be effective predators even in dim lighting by using all their senses.
The Color Spectrum in the Water Explained
Because blue is the last hue to be absorbed by water, clear water frequently appears blue. Because of the sediment that has been added to the water, muddy water is definitely not blue.
The light cannot penetrate as far as it can in clear water because of the suspended dirt.
Due to their shorter wavelengths, orange, yellow, and green are the next colors to be absorbed by water after red.
Longer-wavelength hues like blue and violet are the last to be absorbed.
In dirtier environments or at greater depths, darker colors can therefore be observed.
Therefore, since these hues can be fished throughout the water column, the ideal baits for dirty water will be those that are purple, blue, or black in color.
