Help / Tips for fishing stained dark water

With all the heavy rains we have had in this area over the last week, almost all the lakes seems to be really high with poor water clarity. We fished 4 different lakes over opening weekend and all of them were a mess. Needless to say the fishing was Poor at the best. By far the worst opening weekend I’ve had since moving to this area. Opening Morning found us on the Horseshoe chain. Was greeted to Water about 1/2 way up into the parking lot. The dock was so under water you could only see about 6″ of the outside corner post ( Normally 4+ Feet off the water ) Decided to give it a try anyway. 3 of us fished hard for 4-5Hrs and only managed 3 fish ( 2 Small pike and 1 small Bass ) Feel bad for homeowners in that are – LOTS of Damage due to incredible high water. My fishing buddy whos fished that area for 45+ Years said this was the worst he’s ever seen it out there. Tried another lake and found same conditions. Fishing was slightly better with about 20 Bass and 5 or so pike caught. Tried 2 different lakes on Sunday with Very little success ( Both also high dirty water ) Anyone who fishes high dirty water often have any tips to make the best of a bad situation. I figure moving baits with lots of flash and vibration would be the best option. Fished Chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, and various lipless rattling baits – Really limited success. Tried slowing down with flashy Jerkbaits – Same. Tried to really slow down and fish weightless stick worms – Nada. Thought deeper water may be the ticket. Thought water clarity may be lower in the water column – Still Nada. The limited success we had was fishing the area with flow coming into the lake. I would have thought that area with have even worst water clarity. Also caught a few fish in what should have been visible reed beds on a chatterbait. Not sure if worth fighting the conditions or just waiting till they improve. I’m just not sure how quick the current conditions will change. We have some more rain in the forecast For tomorrow and Thur. I sure hope its not much. I’m not sure how much more this area can handle right now. I was hoping we got good rains this spring to get backs back up, but not like this. 7.5 ” of rain in 48 Hrs and over 10″ in one week is a little to much !!!

I fish a couple of lakes every season that have very stained water. In the summer, the water is almost like a pea soup from algae blooms. I primarily use the same tactics you tried: brightly/neon colored lures that make noise. Bear in mind that the time I do it is summer though, not spring, so the fish are post spawn by quite a while and have settled into a traditional summer pattern. These lakes are often better for me than clear-water lakes so I don’t have to worry about finessing them either. Just grip it and rip it, usually with success.

It sounds like you’ve already tried to make it work. If I were you, I’d fish another area that isn’t so flooded. If you have to drive further, so be it. Its probably not what you wanted to hear or what you want to do, but sometimes you just have to accept that mother nature will have dominion over it for a while. They’re talking another round of potential severe storms on Thursday evening.

Last season, the water was so low in the areas of rivers I fish for smallmouth that I literally couldn’t do it. So I didn’t even try. Complete opposite problem right now.

In that dark gross water I do best with black baits for what ever reason

Do you think the poor bite was due to the poor clarity or that the fish simply become shocked and just stop feeding when the water raises this fast and is so dirty? Like stated I will most likely just need to travel further away till conditions get better in this area. Hope that doesn’t take to long. We already have had a shortened season due to mother nature. If the conditions truly slow down fishes feeding, I can’t wait till they go on a feeding rampage after.

Fish like stability, levels, tepms,clarity chemistry, etc. Rivers and flowages will be impacted the most from our quick swing from drought to flooding conditions. I would fish a lake that does not have as much of a connection to rivers for now.

Orange jigs with rattles.

A lake we fish by Ashby is pretty dirty. As Bearcat said black baits do better.

I think the shock of going clear to dirty had them reluctant to bite as well. Giving the fish time to adjust could be all that is needed.

Many cabins/houses were flooded over the weekend on the lakes SE of St Cloud. It’s a mess. And yes, you can’t see down more than 3 inches the water is so stained.

As far as lakes go, stained water doesn’t affect fish much in my experience, maybe their feeding schedule, day vs night bite. I usually opt for Vegas jigs (glitter gold/silver). Darker colors like orange and black are good options too.

IMO, I think it was due to the rapid rise in water level. We did ok on Saturday on a lake with not an overabundance of inflow and was somewhat dirty and maybe a foot higher than average. Yesterday, we fished a lake that had a swollen creek coming in one end and the crow river backing up from the other. Water was very dirty for this time of year, but I think the bigger factor was that the lake level had come up about 6′ in a week. Partner caught 1 eye and I didn’t get a bite. Others were catching a few in the river inflow.

Ya this water was more than just slightly stained. A silver and white chatterbait could not be seen until within a few inches of the surface. I think the shock from the rapidly raising water was a even bigger factor in the poor bite. on top of that you can add in how much more new bank structure the fish now have access to. They can now roam as kinds on new area. Probably just take a week or so off from fishing this area.

stout93 wrote:

Many cabins/houses were flooded over the weekend on the lakes SE of St Cloud. It’s a mess. And yes, you can’t see down more than 3 inches the water is so stained.

Yes, Lots of home and car damage around this area from last weeks storms. Major Hail and rain for 3 out of 4 days seems to do that. I feel bad for those homeowners affected by all of these storms.