guist creek lake in Shelbyville ky is close to my home

I can’t catch a bass there to save my life

I guess there’s a lot of agriculture run off

Idk but it’s stained

Less than a foot of visibility

Thermocline registered on the sonar at about 18 foot

Any advice would be very much appreciated

I fish stained to muddy water most of the time. I think its much easier to fish than clear water. I use the usual lures, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, bladed jigs, cranks, Texas rigs of all kinds and the list goes on. Shallow cover is always good. An 18 foot thermocline is a nice depth. I would fish points if there are any from the shore to 18 foot.Theres so many ways to fish a point . I like cranks, and texas rigs most on points, also on humps and deep flats close to a drop off.

I'm use to fishing very clear water but do fish one particular lake that's stained.

Spinnerbait has been the most effective followed by bladed jig for numbers.

My best fish was caught on a deep diving crank bait " Norman DD 22 ".

Dark colored soft plastics should work well also.

The Saginaw River is very similar to what you are describing. Sexy shad or chrome cranks on Sunny days. Black cranks and black and blue soft plastics sunny or cloudy days. I wouldn’t bother with any other soft plastic color other than black and blue. Colorado bladed spinner baits in black.

In my experience fish tend to hang very very tight to cover in heavily stained water. Even if the fish are used to the stain.

You seem to be blaming the stained water for your lack of results.

My advice would be to stop doing that.

Because that ain't it.

One of the BFL Regionals I qualified for trying to reach the Toyota Series, was held on a lake where my boater parked 4 ft from a shear wall sitting over 30 ft of clear water.

I felt so far out of element that after an hour I was almost tempted to ask him to take me back to ramp!

As @scaleface mentioned your usual baits are the best. There really isn’t anything you shouldn’t use.

Give me shallow, stained, tannic water every time

Mike

Those fish should be pretty shallow and cover oriented. Dark colored plastics and jigs would be my main starting points. Buzzbaits and bladed jigs in dark colors would be top options also. Stained water is my comfort zone, clear water is where I get out of my element.

I was pretty tired when I saw this post last night so I didn’t type a reply. Glad I didn’t. Now I can just hit “ditto” on bluebasser’s post.

Only other thing to add is figure out what the stain is. Tannic is that brown tea color to water but the water is really clear. Runoff will be a creamy tan color and the water is truly dirty. An algal bloom will be more green where the water itself is clear but has clouds in it. Each is a little different. Tannic is permanent and year round. Runoff silt comes and goes with rain and plowing seasons. Algal blooms come and go based on nutrients and water conditions. The temporary ones, when they first happen, put the fish off for a day or two. They can also be localized at first so on a bigger lake you can move around and find cleaner water.

My go to in stained water is the bleeding shiner spinner bait.

3 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

I was pretty tired when I saw this post last night so I didn’t type a reply. Glad I didn’t. Now I can just hit “ditto” on bluebasser’s post.

Only other thing to add is figure out what the stain is. Tannic is that brown tea color to water but the water is really clear. Runoff will be a creamy tan color and the water is truly dirty. An algal bloom will be more green where the water itself is clear but has clouds in it. Each is a little different. Tannic is permanent and year round. Runoff silt comes and goes with rain and plowing seasons. Algal blooms come and go based on nutrients and water conditions. The temporary ones, when they first happen, put the fish off for a day or two. They can also be localized at first so on a bigger lake you can move around and find cleaner water.

Casts by fly nailed it. Move around to find better water, structure, and nice green thick weed beds. The greener the better, several different varieties even better. Structure like ledges, rock piles, close to greens, even better.

The posts by others in this thread touching on lures that work, and fish orienting themselves to cover in shallow water, are spot on. I would make an additional point about accurate casting. When visibility is less than a foot as stated by the OP, unless one is very familiar with the lake he or she is fishing, normal to long casts to underwater cover can be difficult. When you can't see the edges of the cover it is easier to hang up, or not cast close enough to prompt a reaction from the bass.

To avoid these issues you could use lures that can be pitched into the cover, but if you are like me you may want to fish the edges first before you pitch into the middle of it. When on unfamiliar lakes with low visibility I will often cruise close to the cover to eyeball it and get a feel for where the edges are and then come back to it after an hour or so. Before I employed this method, I can't count the number of times I threw a lure into productive looking cover and blew up a spot by hanging up.

Aside from all the informational comments already posted, I most often resort to lures with rattles, lures with vibration, and slow moving topwater which create noise; all fished close and parallel to the bank as possible.

On 7/20/2026 at 9:47 PM, LokiDawg said:

guist creek lake in Shelbyville ky is close to my home

I can’t catch a bass there to save my life

I guess there’s a lot of agriculture run off

Idk but it’s stained

Less than a foot of visibility

Thermocline registered on the sonar at about 18 foot

Any advice would be very much appreciated

If the water is remotely warm most of the time the bass will go towards cover.... flip dark colored soft plastics into cover for reaction bites... If you drop it on their head they will bite.... Try slow rolling spinnerbaits and chatterbaits across shallow flats or parallel the bank.... Throw a buzzbait or a tight wobble crankbait something that they can track and key in on with long casts... In these conditions finessee usually ain't it

Put a glass bead between your bullet weight and T rigged plastic and pitch to all the visible cover/structure. Tungsten weight is louder against the bead than lead. Use curly tail worms or craws with big flaps, not the smaller beaver style. Use black/blue color.

Thank you all for the tips

I’ll be in the water again next week

I’ll hopefully have pics for the latest catch thread