Power and Finesse Fishing Techniques For Clear Water:
Although it might seem counter-intuitive to beginning anglers, clear water can often be a curse to bass fishermen, particularly in the absence of vegetation. Clear water bass are spooky, and tend to choose deeper haunts that are more difficult to fish effectively. This difficulty is further magnified when it’s calm.Without a ripple on the water’s surface, every shadow and sound are amplified at depth causing already spooky bass to lock their jaws even further. Bass can still be caught when it’s clear and slick though – in fact it’s possible to have some really good days provided you keep the words “fast,” and “natural” at the forefront of your mind. Here are the best fishing techniques for clear water:
Power Fishing Techniques For Clear Water:
A big reason the moving bite often dies when it’s clear and calm is that the bass are getting too good a look at the bait, preventing a reaction strike. To counter this, it’s vitally important to speed up your retrieves with moving baits in clear water. There’s no bait you can wind too fast for a bass to catch up, and they’re much more inclined to strike out of reaction at a fl ash burning over their heads than a spinnerbait they get a full look at as it slow rolls by their faces. It’s all about creating a reaction strike, because reaction strikes are just that – reactions. They don’t think about the fact that it’s clear or calm, they just lash out because their millennia’s old genetic code is telling them that they need to strike. Clear water also means that bass will be able to see your presentation from a long ways away, so use that to your advantage and move quickly to cover lots of water until you fi nd an area that is holding fi sh. They’ll travel a long ways to check out a quickly moving swimbait or jerkbait.
TRY THESE POWER FISHING TECHNIQUES FOR CLEAR WATER
• Jerkbait
Finesse Fishing Presentations For Clear Water:
The bread and butter of your “tough conditions” arsenal, finesse techniques are one of the best ways to get bit when it’s clear and calm. The key is to create a natural presentation, one that looks so real that the bass can’t resist it. Choose natural colors like green pumpkins, browns, and watermelons for your plastics, use light line and light weights to slow your bait’s fall and maximize their action – and whenever possible match the hatch. Natural looking, light line presentations are a great complement to a blistering search bait in clear and calm water. Particularly if bass are showing themselves by following your spinnerbait, jerkbait, or swimbait. Remember where they are, give them a rest, and come back in an hour with something too natural to resist like a subtly wiggling worm on a drop shot.
TRY THESE FINESSE FISHING TECHNIQUES FOR CLEAR WATER
• Ned Rig
Updated April 8th, 2019 at 5:31 AM CT