I'm primarily a top and shallow water guy;  my lake is almost always pretty clear.  About 3 weeks ago the water began turning a dirty green, and visibility which is usually 20 feet is now 2 feet and getting worse.  Each time out I keep changing colors, rattles or not, walkers, poppers, or props.  Fish are still here and they gotta' eat, but the bite has become tough.  Some of you fish these conditions regularly and I'm curious how you deal with it.  Thanks.

If you didn’t have a lot of rain water runoff then it must be an algae bloom or the lake has turned over. Turn over brings bottom debris to the surface and smells like cabbage. The only thing you can do is wait a few weeks until the ecosystem settles down.

Algae bloom is OK as long as the baitfish are OK. Some algae’s are toxic be careful.

 

Tom

Has much less to do with the color choice and much more to do with them coping with this drastic visibility change. If that's an accurate description of the visibility these fish are in a deep funk. 

 

If the fish had been able to see 20 ft and were willing to move 10ft to strike top water, they might only be willing to move one foot right now. 

 

Drop in the water column a bit and throw some thump, big bladed jig or spinnerbait or a lipless 

Turnover is hard. Tight to cover or bottom, won't move far.

Get loud or accurate or both. 

This last weekend I had to cover 2x the amount of water I usually cover and caught half the fish. 

Try to Potomac river, sometimes it would get so chocolate, I have to throw bubble gump lures for it to see. 

White is pretty good when it’s muddy.

My local lake does this. It’s algae and impacts oxygen levels.  As far as plastics go, black neon works. A wire chartreuse spinnerbait the gold rear blade slow rolled. Good luck!

I would use baits with vibration regardless of color, But if you want to go there the old black and blue or junebug. Nothing beats the vibration in that condition ad actually it will help you catch more fish.

Noise first, size second and then color (I usually start light and go darker if necessary).  Up or down depends on target, and I’ll adjust speed of retrieve downward.  I tend to avoid baits that rely on erratic movement, relying more on straight line retrieves.  There are probably other strategies and tactics, but these seem to work for pretty well for me.

You need noise. Spinnerbait in black or white. A lot of people say Colorado blades for the conditions but I've had better luck with willow despite it being less thump. Play with retrieve but I've found just fast enough to keep it at the depth I want and just quick enough to turn the blades worked best. 

 

As mentioned closer to cover was best

I suggest that the fish have moved shallower and tighter to cover.

My waters are almost always green. I use the normal colors and patterns. lots of shad and sunfish colors. June bug , greens and browns with soft plastics.

If it is algal bloom (common this time of year), the fish will pull tight to cover for the first couple days.  It makes tough fishing.  Fish that are used to perfect visibility which moves to far less (algal, muddy doesn’t matter) will stop eating for a minute.  If you have to, then slow and tight to cover.  Once the fish have had a minute to acclimate, then vibration baits will do well for a good while.  if it persists, the fish will acclimate and go back to normal.  In that middle period, chatterbaits in darker shades are my option.

 

 

When clarity is super low they are most likely feeling the bait vs seeing the bait.

 

Use something that "thumps".

 

I don't have much luck with topwaters in low visibility.

 

They are normally closer to cover as well, that's been my experience.

Sapphire blue is the best color I've found when the water turns green. I love to fish a blue bladed jig in that color water. Don't know why it works so well, but it just does. 

Sometimes using some chartreuse dip-it to color the tail of a worm or other plastic bait can seem to help them locate the bait when water clarity is less-than-wonderful.