So in the next few days I'm going to start a thread or three on my specific lake. Hopefully some of the info that you guys help with will help some of the other guys out there that have questions similar to mine. I've been bank bound for bass mostly for the last few years. I've never had the urge to buy a boat. I've recently picked up a rig for my lake and am having a great time trying to learn it more and more with my graph.

In this part I'd like to discuss water clarity. I understand the concept of clear, stained, and muddy water. But what actually defines clear or stained water. I'd hope muddy is fairly self explanatory. Would clear water be me being able to see a white lure down into six foot of water or what? I'm assuming that stained would be half of the visibility in clear water. That being said, I know that weather conditions can also affect the clarity on a lake. Wind, cloudy days, clear bluebird days, etc etc. Things like this are where I'm positive I need to improve on to become a better bass angler instead of starting on a guess and trying to work towards a pattern from there.

So, with your help, I'd like to try and actually define what a clear or stained lake would be. Short of me dropping a tape measure in the water with something attached so I can see the end, I'm d**n clueless here.

But what actually defines clear or stained water.

Here is my theory

If the water is usually tea color or tannic for that lake it is considered clear. The water will never get any clearer just down grade. The fish have already adjusted to the water and are still accurate sight feeders. When you have a storm roll in and the water has more stuff mixed in the water then to what degree determines if it is stained or muddy. If the lake is normally murky. The fish are less of a sight feeder but have already adjusted to the lack of clarity and are still accurate feeders. A storm rolls in and messes up the water more the fish adjust quickly. Also the influx of clearer water at times turns them on. In lakes that are normally gin clear you can go by the white lure idea. Any stain to the water or debre really messes up the fish and it takes the fish a much longer time to adjust to the change in clarity. The bass become very inaccurate if the lake turns muddy or heavy stained and have a hard time feeding until they adjust.

wind, cloud cover makes fishing gin clear water easier to fish because the wind breaks up the surface and the fish become more active the same with overcast days and early and late when the sun is low. High pressure blue bird sky's positions fish tight to cover or in it.