Mississippi River Water Clarity

As we inch towards the open water period I thought it would be a good time to get some feedback to help define water clarity up and down the pools of the Mississippi. Sort of an IDO standard if you will. We’ve all used terms or read terms such as Chocalote Milk, Stained, Muddy, Merky, Clear, Viso and so on. What do these descriptive words mean to the individual? Can we put a universal number on them. Well, I for one drop a 1/4 oz white flu flu in the shadow of the boat (sunny days) in currentless water. Using the line as a measuring stick I go down as far as I can still clearly make out the jig and mark the line. If I can see the jig at over 3′ down I consider that CLEAR water. 2′ to 3′ and I consider that STAINED water. Anything less than 2′ and it’s MUDDY.
Does anybody else do anything similar and if so what type of corelation do you drawn between numbers and descriptive words?
Open to suggestions and ideals. I think it will be intersting with different streams and confluence areas dumping in from both sides on the various pools.

What I usually base my judgements on are how far you can stick your pole into the water. Say if you have 6’6″ rod and you can see half of the rod then you got about 3′ of visibility and vice versa. I like to base the colors I use walleye fishing on this method. If you can see 3′ or more I like to use natural colors and brighter colors if it is stained or muddy.

Pool 18 right now is fairly clear. Can see down about a foot and a half. That’s real good for down here. Otherwise, in the summer I call it sh((. Can see down about 4 inches.
All depends on how much water we are getting from up north, current and barge traffic has a big impact on our clarity. We have no backwater to filter anything out.

Pool 9 is zebra mussel clear.

Bos,

I’d shift your scale shallower. Muddy to me would be about a half a foot. The Mississippi’s water tend to be coffee colored and our bottoms tend to be dark so less light reflects. Durring the summer months the water from the mouth of the Minnesota River to about the upper 1/3 of Lake Pepin will be stained. The lake settles a lot of silt so from there on down the water will be prety clear down through pool 10.

John

John

During the ice season pool 8 can be pretty darn good….as mentioned “zebra muscle clear” ( a weak tea color) which makes good for purples, reds, blacks, golds and greens. All natural colors mimicking perch, gills, minnows and crawly things…natural colors.

So with that said….tea colored to me is stained with at least 5 foot of visibility, chocolate milk and muddy means it is time to move on….not good stuff

As for murky, I can live with it as long as I can see bright baits 2-3 foot under the ice.
Then the end of my line sees glow baits, white/pink, white/ chartreuse and spoons with a lot of silver.

last day that I fished the river this fall, you could see bottom in 8 foot of water on POOL 8.. right south of down town LaCrosse. I have never seen Pool 8 that clear.. I have seen the lake that clear.. but not pool 8..

I think riverfan has it right. I measure the water clarity by my wing dam marker-A&W root bear bottle, 8′ twine, & white sock filled with rocks. I’ve started recording in my fish book diary the clarity. Hopefully, I might start to see a pattern of which wing dam puts out at what clarity (& flow rate).