Water is 53 degrees where I’m at, just coming down from a blowout. Visibility less than 6”. My gut tells me they probably wouldn’t be as aggressive as they would be in these conditions under normal circumstances (once actively feeding) to the point that I could have a good day on a spinnerbait.

 

Do you believe muddy, cold water is generally bad and if so what is the threshold for “cold?”

Cold is dependent on where you are located.  For me anything under 50 is cold.  As far as mud, I have 2 rules.  1. Mud will push them to the bank normally and 2. They normally have lockjaw for 3 days after an event that muddies the water.  After 3 days they gotta eat.  

Below 48 or so and muddy is really tough fishing. 

I believe there's a bunch of factors in play......and yes I struggle in muddy cold water.   The other factors?  Pretty much everytime I was out in muddy sub 50 degree water the wind was HOWLING.   Bass (especially Largemouth) are ambush predators.  When its muddy they hang right next to cover.  Even if they aren't actively feeding I believe they might hit the right lure when it comes right by them.  The problem the last Winter, at least for me I believe was the howling wind.  20 mph winds make it really hard to make accurate casts, especially to Bass in shallow cover.   Most of the muddy cold Bass I caught this year were Spots (active hunters instead of ambush predators) and were on some kind of deep structure I could get a lure to.  

 

 

As always, I'm not an expert.  

I had probably 8” of visibility on the susky and they were crushing cranks being burned today. Water temps were 50

I've found in cold water that muddies up, the sun seems to heat the sediment up faster than clear water. Shallow water heats up faster than deeper water. Warmer water more fish near the bank. I catch more when the water is stained.

Cold , muddy, falling water is the worst conditions I can think of to fish the river. Generally if these are the conditions I will hit a local lake .

 

Allen

5 hours ago, Munkin said:

Cold , muddy, falling water is the worst conditions I can think of to fish the river. Generally if these are the conditions I will hit a local lake .

 

Allen

Where do you rate cold?

6 hours ago, Munkin said:

Cold , muddy, falling water is the worst conditions I can think of to fish the river. Generally if these are the conditions I will hit a local lake .

 

Allen

That’s interesting. I love and gene really do my best during that time. Cold or warm water.

My conditions arent typical but I do have an opinion.

At this time of year in my waters the temp is +50 in the creeks and clear.

The river is mid 40s and clear.

If we get a deluge of rain in the watershed then it's a blowout. I never bother fishing the river in a blowout in spring. 

Our bass dont come into season until early July 

I have a hard time catching them until water temps start to hit 50 or better.  If it's been consistently hitting the low 50s, I'll fish in muddy/stained conditions.  Not muddy like solid chocolate milk, zero visibility, but 6-8" visibility yes.  I do better with big black jignpigs worked slow in eddies than with spinnerbaits when it's like that. 

On 3/14/2024 at 1:08 PM, TOXIC said:

They normally have lockjaw for 3 days after an event that muddies the water. 

 

This has also been my experience. Always seems to take a few days after a big blowout for the fish to start biting again. Could be I'm just fishing them wrong, but I always struggle finding bites after an event like that.

Any kind of unstable environment can make fishing really tough to read any pattern that will hold up.