How To Adjust for water clarity | Which is best for bass?

You got another idea? What's the idea? So what changes in baits do you have depending on water clarity? Like if it's super super super dark or super super super clear, what's the difference? Okay, so whenever it's super clear you want baits that are extremely natural. Typically you want baits, I don't know why, but you want baits that don't catch a lot of water whenever it's super clear. Like straight tail worms, jig trailers that don't catch a lot of water, don't flap a lot, seem to be the best. Whenever you're throwing a crankbait, one with a tighter wobble seems to do a little bit better in clear water. So that's the thing, whenever you're in clear water you want baits that look a little bit more natural, don't have the real violent types of wobbles or flaps in the water. In muddy water, those fish can't see quite as good, so they use their lateral line to really hone in on the bait. So they get up there and they roll them a little bit more whenever it's muddy. They really get around on just kind of random banks and they do get on stumps, stuff like that. But a wide wobbling crankbait, a spinnerbait with big blades, a chatterbait that has a really hard thump, or any type of a soft plastic that has a lot of flappers, a lot of appendages, usually does a little bit better in the muddy and stained water. And that's kind of, that kind of goes hand in hand with like grass too, because when the fish get in the grass they can't see your bait quite as good, but they can feel it a little bit better. So you can really pull them out of the grass with baits that are a little bit louder, have a little more flap to them, a little bit more knock to them, and stuff like that. So yeah, in muddy water, I typically go a lot shallower. I kind of go to lighter weights. Like if I'm going to be flipping, I'll go down to like a three-eighths instead of a half, whereas in clear water, I stay with a half. And I use that three-eighths ounce weight because it falls down through the bait a little bit slower, has a longer time of it actually falling, and that fish, the fish can key in a little bit better, can feel it actually moving through the water column, whereas if it hits the bottom and it's just sitting there, I feel like the fish can't feel it moving as much, so I want that slower fall. And if the fish are sitting in that shallow cover, because whenever the water's staying, I'll catch fish up in a foot or something like that a lot of times. I'll just catch them super shallow, suspended under, not really suspended, sitting under stumps, sitting up there beside laydowns that are extremely shallow. So I want to go to a lighter weight because I'm not going to be flipping the ends of trees nearly as often. It's almost always going to be the stumps and the part closest to the bank. So I go to lighter weights, bulkier profiles, and all that slows down actually the fall throughout the water. In clear water, I'm going to have a bait that falls a little bit faster, and I'm going to have a bait that looks a little more natural, and I'm going to flip the tips of trees, you know, 10 foot deep. I'm going to flip the stump still too, but for the most part, I'm anticipating fish suspended a lot more in the clear water, so I use a lot more natural baits. I use a lot of baits that, you know, get those fish to bite, and it just goes to show that a lot of times whenever the water is more stained, you'll look in a pocket, and you'll see like a shallow, shallow pea gravel point, and that'll be where the fish are. And then whenever the water is clear, you go into a pocket, and there'll be like a really deep channel swing bank, and that'll be where the fish seem to bite on that day whenever the water is a little bit clearer. So you kind of have to change up exactly what you're doing all the way around, and you'll see like in the springtime, the water is really stained, and people are using crankbaits a lot. They're using spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, squarebills, all that kind of stuff a lot in the springtime. After the fish spawn and come off bed, soft plastic worms, weightless worms, become like one of the most dominant applications because that's just what kind of works whenever the water is clear. So I've got a wacky rigged stick bait right there. That's kind of one of the biggest deals in, you know, clear water whenever you think the fish are suspended, primarily under docks besides stumps, on the edges of grass. That, you know, wacky rigged, you know, stick worm is one of the best things you could throw in that exact application. So definitely the biggest thing for me is you want baits that are very slender whenever the water's clear. They don't have a lot of action because that just seems to be what the fish bite. I catch a bunch of really, really big fish when the water is extremely clear on four-inch worms, on little, big, tiny shaky heads. I throw it around and just drag it extremely slow, and then whenever the water's stained, I just don't do that anymore. That's not a bait that I pick up. It could still work. I don't really know. It's just not something that I pick up, and then another thing is a drop shot plays a big role whenever you're in clear water and in dirty water. I just don't pick it up. I just flip something that goes straight down to the bottom, but there's something about that little tiny motion that that drop shot has. It just barely moves. Every time you wiggle it, the worm just barely flexes just a little, and what that does is it just gets those fish that are, you know, a little bit harder to bite. They're not really keyed on anything. They're kind of roaming around. It's just such a small, non-invasive bait, and that's a good word. I'm gonna come back to that in just a second, that those fish that are kind of lethargic and not up there actively feeding, that's something that they really are trying to target on, and the non-invasive, that's a word that, you know, really sticks to my brain whenever I'm fishing in clear water. You want a bait that is super non-invasive. You don't want a bait that's going to be polarizing at all. Whenever you're fishing for clear water fish, you don't want a big, bulky spinnerbait. You don't want a big squarebill. You don't want a big chatterbait. You don't want a big buzzbait because that's going to make the fish either run from it or run to it, and that's a polarizing bait. You're going to catch the fish that are going to bite, and you're not going to catch the fish that are scared of it, okay? Obviously. If you throw something like a wacky rig stick worm up in there, no fish is going to run from that, or at least an extremely small percentage of fish are going to run from that because it's so non-invasive. Whenever they see it floating down in front of them, they're going to get it. If you downsize your topwaters to a small little popper or something like that, fish are not going to run from that. It's so non-invasive. It's so small. They're not scared of it at all, and the fish that are going to bite it, are going to bite that big one, will also bite that little one. Plus, you'll catch, you'll coax some more into biting in that clear water. So, being non-invasive, making sure that the baits that you're throwing are not going to scare the fish and immediately postpone, or anytime the water is clear, that's a big key. That's one of the main reasons why downsizing baits gets so many more bites, is because you don't scare away those keeper-sized fish. Now, on the other side, in that clear water, the fish seem to be more aggressively feeding. They seem to be looking for things that are moving in the water that they can actually, you know, key on. So, you want something that kind of floats by the fish a little bit slower, catches more water, and stays in the strike zone, and has a big loud vibration, whether it be Colorado blades, spinnerbaits, big vibrating jigs, all that types of stuff, really makes those fish hone in, hunt down that bait, and come and actively, you know, chase that bait down. Are you going to scare some still with those big baits? Of course, it's going to be a little bit invasive, but in that clear, and in that clear water, they can see it so well, that the feel and the vision can scare them. In that muddy water, there's nothing that can really scare them, because they like the feel, and they can't see it too good. So, that's the kind of the keys for how I pick out, if I want to fish certain baits in clear water or muddy, but these are just kind of standards. They can change at all times. There can be a time where you get on the best bite of your life, is on a big, bulky, giant square bill in crystal clear water. That can definitely happen, and there's times where you might be flipping a tiny little worm in muddy water, and getting more bites than you've ever gotten anything in your life. So, these are just general standards to kind of start off by, but as soon as you start getting some clues on what kind of baits they like every single day, you should instantly start trying to deviate, and kind of dial it in more and more, and get very precise on it. So, that's my standard approach for how I, you know, target clear water and stained water. One thing we're doing pretty cool in the channel guys, we're about to do a rod giveaway. So, if you want to enter in the rod giveaway, hit that subscribe button, turn the alerts on, because we're going to actually figure out exactly what we want to do for the rod giveaway, and you don't want to miss the videos, because you might miss that giveaway. So, appreciate you guys watching. We'll see y'all in the next video. That's my guide to clear and dirty water. I think you look comfortable. I am. Big old fancy Ranger 520 LC. Very comfy. Very, very comfy. So, I'm not sure if I'm going to use this, but I do want you to talk about something. Let's go. Let's do it. That's what I, that's what we do folks. I don't know if we're going to use this or not, but Hunter pretty much just throws the camera in my face. No rehearsing. Don't even know what we're going to talk about, and she's asking me questions. So, this is not scripted. This is me talking. So, it's about to get real cold. Real cold. And it's going to be tough to go fishing, right? Yep. So, we might be traveling a little more, playing a little poker. We will definitely be traveling, playing a little poker. So, what we need to ask these 16,000 subscribers is, is if they're going to mind if we throw on a poker vlog. Do y'all want to see a poker vlog? Leave a like if you want to see a poker vlog. Be pretty fun. Probably won't go too in depth, because obviously the bulk of my viewers are not going to want to know about why exactly I'm betting, you know, whenever the club came on the turn, why I'm continuing. And you're probably not going to want to know all that in-depth stuff, but could be some pretty cool entertainment of just the traveling, and seeing the inside of casinos a little bit, and just seeing, you know, thousands of dollars worth of poker chips all the time. And the elk that we see all the time. We do see elk. It's a little bit late for that. Is it? Yeah, we usually go in October. A little bit. We did see elk last December. We were in there December 9th. Was we? Yeah, there was a lot of elk there. Okay. Probably going to see some elk then. Y'all want to see some elk? Y'all want to see some poker? Give a thumbs up. This video can't just be a one minute long about poker. What else we going to talk about? No, I would like to let y'all know though, if you ever do see an elk and you're in Kyle's presence, just make sure you run faster than him, because he will outrun you if the elk start chasing you. Left Hunter in the dust. We got charged by a little tiny. It was not a little tiny. It was not a little tiny, but by elk standards, relatively small, you know, had horns like this long, kind of wide, kind of, you know, I don't know how old that is. Two and a half, three and a half year old elk. I don't know. Wasn't a giant one, but it came charging us out of the creek and started running at us. And Hunter's not that fast of a runner. And I am kind of fast of a runner. So I was about a few yards ahead of Hunter, turned around, stopped, waited for her, punched the elk in the nose, knocked him out, rescued Hunter and ran out of the woods. First of all, he was not a few yards ahead of me because I couldn't even see him through the trail. He was gone. He was back in the car and I was still running. I was going to come pick her up in the car. I was going to get help. I was going to pick her up in the car because, uh, yeah, she was probably going to be elk bait. It wasn't that bad, but I did leave her by a little bit. I went back and got her though. Kyle's fight or flight definitely kicked in and it was definitely the flight of it. I ain't fighting an elk. That thing was probably like 400 pounds, 500 pounds, even though it was not a full grown one, still was a lot bigger than I am. I wasn't going to fight that thing. I mean, I would have hated how to put that headlock and just ruin all his self-confidence like that. And just, you know, straight up, let him get tombstone by a dang human. He wouldn't be very elk like if that happened. And we need to talk about what else they want to see truth series wise. Truth series wise, let me know. I'm about to film it right now. So leave a comment instantly. Right now, like right this second. Because we're about to leave. If we leave the bow here, we're not going to have any tackle. We're going to have no tackle. So we're going to have to be just talking about it not being able to see it. Yep. War Eagle. Nah. I heard almost one the other day Kyle. Almost one what? The Iron Bowl. Okay. All right then. That's news to me. They were close. They were close at the beginning. When it started, they were close. Yeah. When they started, they were tied. Didn't last too long though.