Hi James,

 

The lake in my back yard, Lake Simcoe, is gin clear in most areas I frequent from zebra mussels and in these conditions I typically run mono/fluoro leaders and use more realistic patterns and colours. The old match the hatch

 

When I'm up north fishing parts of Georgian Bay (Lake Huron), the water is semi-clear (yellowish) by the shores based on depth but overall is black stained from the iron in the rocks. We do have success on white/bone as a general colour,

 

So my question to you is how do you prepare for stained water conditions? (top 5 lures, patterns/colours, specific techniques that excel etc)

 

Thanks in advance, love the videos on YT and old SK promotional ones too.

 

Jon

Thank you Jon glad you like the YT videos and SK shows.  Thanks for watching...great question!   Assuming your fishing for Smallmouth?  Either way these should work for stained or off colored water I generally use the following:

 

Spinnerbait with grub trailer

Bladed jig (Thunder cricket) with a swimbait trailer

Jig with chunk or Rage Craw for trailer

Square Bill Crankbait (Strike King KVD 2.5)

Buzzbait

Tube in a dark melon, dark GP or black could be a killer for smallies

A Red Eye shad Lipless crankbait can also be effective.

 

Whenever the water visibility is diminished I use either bright colors (white, white and chart. or firetiger) or colors that produce darker silhouettes like Black/Blue or Dark green Pumpkin and sometimes dip the tail in chartruese or orange dye.

 

Generally the fish in stained or off color water run shallower so that is where I would focus my efforts.   Good fishing!

Thanks for the feedback James! This will help cull the bait monkey's desire for every colour/pattern. I've had varied success with dark jig patterns, I think I'll use it more as a confidence bait in the future. We do tend to fish up shallow 15' or less.