fished a lake yesterday with water ranging from 40-45*

 

it had some color, but wasnt muddy. call it stained/cloudy?

anyway.... what would you guys try?

I generally have 2 rods on my deck from open water until around 50 degrees, jerkbait and a jig. If I get real crazy, I'll pull out a shaky head.

jerkbaits, chatterbaits, lipless cranks...

All of the above plus a Shad Rap and a very old Wiggle Wart.

Shakey Head, Spinnerbait, Drop Shot, Senko, Jerkbait

The past couple of years it has been a blade bait.

Blade bait is good, deep running jerkbait too like a travado dp or pointer deep. The travado DP is much cheaper and has as good of action as the pointer.

All the lures mentioned are very good baits, if I could add one more to the party, it would be a 3/8 oz short arm spinnerbait with a #5 Colorado blade. Great with a grub trailer on a lift drop or slow rolled. The #5 blade will allow a snail's pace retrieve and a very slow rate of fall on a lift drop.

Jerkbaits don't work worth a d**n in stained water.

Jerkbaits don't work worth a d**n in stained water.

 

You sure about that?  LOL

Ok well at our lake they don't. Lol. But then again, our lake doesnt allow success with very many lures anyway.

In my experience fishing jerkbaits, there are ones that excel due to their movement, others due to their sound and others due to the amount of water they displace and how they displace it.

 

In dirtier water, I'll tend to go with a larger Pointer 128. It displaces more water and projects sound better than the smaller jerks that draw bites solely from being seen by the fish. Bass have a lot of senses and IMO sight is not really up at the top with regards to catching them. I fully believe they "feel" most lures before they ever see them.

I like a lc 110 or 128 in cold stained or murky water. if it is clear I like a lc 78 or a yozuri chrystal minnow

and a jig

What baits I fish varies a lot from 40 to 50 degrees. Low 40's I'm fishing jerkbaits, jig, and a spoon. Once I get closer to 50 I add a spinnerbait, rattletrap, flat crank, and a swimbait to that list. 

Agreem with other reply...Old school Wiggle Wart, and Jig

Jig, spinnerbait, or a lipless crank.