Clear water and bass fishing. Now, that can strike fear in the souls of some bass fishermen. And what I mean by clear water is anything visibility deeper than 5 feet. And some of you know, I'm in the West Coast, and I fish crystal clear waters in some of the lakes and rivers I fish in. And that means you could take a stop sign and put it on the bottom and you can read it in 25 feet of water, no problem. Super gin-clear water. It's not as intimidating as it may seem. You can actually catch a lot of fish, and a lot of times, big ones. Okay. So let's walk through some of this stuff.
One of the first things people think about when it comes to clear water is using spinning gear, light line, and small baits. True, fact, that is one of the things you can do. So I do have spinning outfits with 6-pound fluorocarbon line. Six-pound, that's right. I was worried about 6-pound. I started with 10-pound, and I worked my way down to 6. I don't have any breakoffs, but the cool thing about 6-pound fluorocarbon line is that it allows the bait to act naturally on the water. It doesn't have buoyancy in it like braid, and it kinda sinks a little bit, about the same rate as a bait. It doesn't impede the bait's movement. I also use small baits, 3-inch size baits, 4-inch size baits. That's kind of the standard. We'll talk about those in a second.
That's not the only thing you fish. Now, when you're fishing flooded bushes, heavy vegetation, docks, things where the bass bury up into, I've been known to break out that flipping stick with 50-pound braid and large jigs, a full-size plastic, you know, Texas rig plastics, and go in and dig 'em out. The thing is when the bass are buried up in that kinda cover, the braid is kinda concealed anyway. It's kinda camouflaged by all those twigs or weeds or what have you that they're in, and that large bait falling through the water column, that's what captures their attention, and they'll hit it. So don't think that you can't use stout gear and thick braid in clear water. You can. And I've caught plenty of bass doing that. You just gotta make sure that they're buried up in it. You can flip and pitch it all day long. You're going to have yourself a blast.
The other thing to consider is wind and shade. This is really key when it comes to fishing clear water. Wind will break up the light penetration, and obviously shade breaks down the light penetration. Shade could be fleeting. Usually, in the early morning, you got, you know, a side of the lake that's got a bunch of trees on it or maybe even a cliff or there's a mountain, what have you, something that blocks the sun when it first rises. So this area of the lake or river is covered in shade for a while until the sun rises. That area that's got shade on it can be hot. That can be a really good area to target, because once the sun hits it, the bass disappear and they're not there anymore. So it can be very productive if you fish these shade pockets when you find them. Even during when the sun is all the way up, there could be other shaded areas to fish, and I'll get to that in a second.
Wind also. When you have a lot of wind, especially when it pushes up against the bank or goes across the point or is blowing over the tops of humps, anything, any kind of structure where the bass could be under or are next to, scattered boulders, what have you, when that wind is in there and it's breaking up that light penetration, then fast-moving larger baits work really well. Spinnerbaits are my number one bait when it comes to that. I've caught many bass in windy conditions. It'll just annihilate in clear water. I don't know what it is, I don't know exactly, but that flash, that vibration, that glimpse of a baitfish, and that bunch of light just kind of moving around underneath, it just kinda camouflages it, and they'll hit it.
Crankbaits work really well too in that situation. As do suspending jerkbaits. Suspending jerkbaits are actually...you know, a lot of people take those and fish it during the colder months, and they'd put it away. Suspending jerkbaits are killer in the summertime. In clear water when it's windy, well, you better have one tied on, because they do work really well. You'd be surprised, you know. Just try it out. Just trust your Uncle Glen here. It does work. I've fished plenty of clear water situations and had great success doing that.
Now, when you got those bluebird bright sunny days, that's when I break out the plastics. And you know, you target a little bit deeper water, points, ridges, humps, creek channels, creek, you know, swings in close to the shoreline, the typical structure that you're always going after if you've got some cover on top of that in the form of weeds or rocks, boulders, stumps, those type of things gathered on that structure, then you're good to go. Outside weed lines work really well. Docks. That's when I break out these plastics.
Now, depending on exactly what it is that I'm targeting, but for the most part, what works wherever you fish, number one, is a Senko or a Senko-type bait. And a 5-inch standard green pumpkin works just fine. Downsizing it to a 4-inch is also killer, works really well in those clear waters. Flukes work really, really well. I definitely fish those. And when you downsize, then, you know, using the spinning gear, tubes are my number one bait on a split shot rig or just on a tube jig. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I've got those rigged, and I'm throwing those in clear water. Hula grubs on football jigs, like an 8-ounce football jig works incredibly well.
And grubs, that's something that's not talked about very much. I don't think it's won a big tournament lately, but you catch a ton of fish on 'em, and some big ones. A 3-inch grub works really well, so does a 5-inch. One little trick here is if you're throwing crankbaits, let's just say it's been windy in the morning and it's kinda shady area, and you're fishing crankbaits, and you're walloping 'em on it, boom, boom, boom, then the wind starts to die down, the sun starts to get up, and that crankbait dies off, grab a 5-inch Texas rig grub and throw it out there in the same area as your crankbait. And really, yeah, it doesn't have to be Texas rig. You can have an open jig head. Anyway, when you cast it out there and reel it back in the same areas where you're throwing those crankbaits, the bite will pick right back up again. You can catch a bunch.
So the colors with all these baits, when you're using plastic baits, is you want to stick to natural colors because you are in clear water. So your watermelon, watermelon seed, watermelon with red flake, green pumpkin, your browns. I like number 176 in the Yamamoto. That does a great job of imitating a sculpin and gobies. You know, and clear, either clear with salt and pepper, clear with some sparkle in it, silver sparkle, gold sparkle, and smoke, smoke and pepper flake. Like, those are the colors I really stick to when I fish in really clear water, green pumpkin being the number one, but all the other colors work very, very well. Oftentimes, people aren't fishing those clear, more translucent colors. And the bass aren't accustomed to seeing them. So you follow on somebody on the same bank, just throw a little bit of different color, and you might pick up the fish that they missed.
Another thing to think about is the shade. Find shady areas that will stay shady throughout the day. Number one place I go to is marinas. Yeah, marinas. Big areas that got big docks, that got a bunch of boats there. It's all covered. Massive amounts of shade. Underneath the docks is where all the algae grows and all the microorganisms. And the baitfish get up there and feed all day long. Well, guess who's going to be there if the baitfish are there? Ask Mr. Bass. So docks and marinas can be really, really productive in clear water. Sometimes you just launch your boat at a marina. Don't fire the big motor up, especially if you're on a river. You know, those marinas are in back eddies, and they got plenty of weeds growing in them, usually. It's got everything a bass needs. It's got cover, it's got shade, it's got structure, it's got baitfish. They're not going anywhere. So sometimes you just launch your boat, drop your trolling motor, and fish that marina. You may not even have to leave it for the day. And if you guys are bank fishermen, man, it's nirvana, right? You can go dock to dock to dock and fish the whole marina, provided they let you fish it. And you know, you can catch a bunch of fish at a marina. So definitely check those out on those clear waters on those sunny days, great places to go.
Another thing about clear water is topwater baits. Topwater works really well even when there's a bright sun overhead on bluebird days. It will call fish up from deep water, particularly if they're smallmouth, but even largemouth will do it. You can fish points that go down into 30, 40 feet of water and fish a Zara Spook over the top of it and kinda across it. And I've seen smallmouth come from 30 feet deep like a Polaris missile, just wham, hit it, come all the way out of the water. Nothing like seeing a 4, a 4.5-pound smallie do that. And it's out on the end of your line now, and the bite is on, man. It is a fight. It is so much fun.
The popper type, you know, the chug bugs, and the baits that have props on 'em, like Devil's Horse, things that imitate an injured minnow or a dying minnow, and you just work those slowly over these areas. Those work really, really well in clear water. Don't let people tell you, "Oh, it only works when it's low light and in the morning, like, not in clear water." Rules change, and you can fish it over deep water. The other thing about clear water too is that you get to see the fish. It's sight fishing, but it's not bed fishing. You can be up in shallow water, and you can see fish. Up in the weeds, you'll spook 'em if you're not careful. You'll see them take off and scatter. You'll see them come off out of docks. You'll spook them out of docks. Come up near some boulders and rocks, and you'll see 'em, you know, swim away. Those fish are catchable.
But you got to think about this, don't ever, ever, ever throw at the fish. Don't throw where he's at. That's like you're throwing rocks at them. These fish are vulnerable. They know that birds of prey can come down. They'll see 'em, and they know there's danger from above. Their instincts are to be protective, and if something hits the water near them, they're going to beat feet. They're going to be out of there because they think they're being attacked. So instead of throwing at them, throw 5, 6, 10 feet away from them. In this clear water, they still have that visibility. They have the lateral lines. They know something landed near them, but they don't perceive it as a threat because it's not close to them.
Don't throw just directly in front of them. Throw, like, 7 feet in front and 2 feet to 3 feet to the side. That looks even more like a natural presentation. And I've seen it where I've cast a bait like that, and they took turn, and they will cover water. They cover that distance in a heartbeat. That bait only falls about a foot before it's in their mouth. They will pow, will nail it. It's actually exhilarating to see 'em do that. But you'll catch that fish if you cast away from him rather than casting at him and spooking him off. So keep that in mind when you're fishing clear water. That might be the number one mistake most anglers make in clear water. "Ooh, there's a bass," and they cast to him, and zoom, off he goes.
So keep these tips in mind when you're fishing clear water, and you're going to catch yourself a whole bunch of bass. Hope that helps. For more tips and tricks like this, visit bassresource.com.
