It happens to just about everybody in the spring – you’re fishing a fairly shallow run of bank and catching bass on soft-plastics or topwaters. Then a storm front comes through and really muddies up the water you’ve been fishing. The next day, you can’t buy a bite. Most of the time, the fish haven’t left or haven’t stopped eating; they’ve just had to switch gears.
Instead of relying on sight to chase down baitfish, they temporarily have to rely on their ability to sense potential forage through the vibrations the baitfish emit in the muddy water. So you’ve got to use something that they can feel instead of see.
A spinnerbait with an orange or chartreuse skirt and big blades puts out a lot of vibration, as does a Z-Man ChatterBait. Fish such lures with a steady retrieve so that bass can home in on them better. Also, hit a piece of cover several times with a rattling jig or bulky soft-plastic before giving up on it, because usually bass will really hug on to cover when the water’s muddy.
—- 3M Scotch Tape and Peltor pro Ray Scheide, Dover, Ark.