How do I measure it?

Just drop a white bait down below your boat and see how far it goes before it is no longer visible. From the bank, you can just see how far you can see down into the water. Water clarity will change with light penetration as well, so over cast days are going to have less water clarity etc.

Water clarity is generally based on human eyesight and as such, is determined by how deep we can see into the water. That determination is relative to what is normal in your local waters. Clear water to me is when I can see 15ft. down. To someone that rarely is able to see eight feet down that (8ft.) would be clear.

Just remember that a bass' eyes are suited to its environment (water), not ours.

Double the distance where a white bait disappears because the light has to travel to the source and reflect back.

 

Bass know their environment so well that its amazing how well they   detect baits . I remember a day  a bass charged  and slammed  my rattleless crankbait from about ten yards away when there was about  about two foot of visibility . I'm guessing the vibrations of the lure and the jingle of the hooks  were sufficient for the fish to hone  in on , until it got close enough to see it .

Double the distance where a white bait disappears because the light has to travel to the source and reflect back.

 

That is true, Secchi depth expresses only 'half' the distance of visible light (Secchi Depth = Depth that a 12" white disk disappears)

 

However, assuming that the light perception of bass is similar to humans, then Secchi depth would be accurate as-is,

because light still has to make a round-trip to reach the eyes of bass.

On the other hand, if biologists learn that bass have the light-gathering ability of great horned owls (certainly possible),

then we might indeed have to double the Secchi depth    

 

Roger

...I remember a day  a bass charged  and slammed  my rattleless crankbait from about ten yards away when there was about  about two foot of visibility . I'm guessing the vibrations of the lure and the jingle of the hooks  were sufficient for the fish to hone  in on , until it got close enough to see it .

 

Similar thing happened to me yesterday.  Mid-day, sunny, could see the bottom to about 4 feet.  I was in 7 feet of water casting a small swimbait perpendicular to the front of the boat and there was a dock 20 feet directly off my starboard side.  I had already made a few casts to the dock with a wacky rigged worm with no success and was now passing it.

 

As the swimbait came into view, maybe 10 feet off the front of my boat, I catch a flash out of the corner of my eye from the boat dock.  A small bass comes charging from the dock, maybe 2 feet under the surface and just hammers the swimbait.  He had to have swam 25 to 30 feet to get to it and was not in the least bit concerned with my boat.  I can't believe he saw the bait from that distance, it had to be the vibrations that he keyed in on initially until he got within 5 or 6 feet of it.

 

As an aside, I caught more fish yesterday on plastics than on the swimbait, including the largest 5.  This fish ignored the slow moving bait dropped close to him and chose to chase down the moving bait that was further away.  I guess this showed me there may always be some fish that are keyed in certain baits who will ignore offerings that other fish are biting.  Gives hope to all the anglers in the back seat...

This is what I mean when I say I'm fishing clear water - this is from two days ago.

 

When you can catch them here - it's a real confidence booster

 

A-Jay

 

https://youtu.be/jcFM07AgPXM

This is what I mean when I say I'm fishing clear water - this is from two days ago.

 

When you can catch them here - it's a real confidence booster

 

A-Jay

 

https://youtu.be/jcFM07AgPXM

That is some gin clear water right there. Very pretty though.