MESSING ABOUT IN MUDDY WATERS

Angler's biological clocks seem to run faster than the weather. We want to fish but everything looks like chocolate milk. I go through this each year here in Idaho where the cures are a great deal more difficult than they were when I lived near the ocean. Given this here are ten things to avoid the muddy water mumbles.

1. Whiskerfishing: Get some bait and try local ponds or streams for catfish and bullheads. Catfish taste better than a lot of game fish and bite at their best in muddy water.

2. Salt Cures: You can, absent a hurricane, always find clean water at the ocean and, usually, in bays. So take your freshwater tackle down and cast streamer flies for rockfish and such in the kelp or fish rocks and such for eels. Bluewater trolling is, of course, an option.

3. Clam Cures: If you're close enough to saltwater consider big spring tides and clams of all sorts, don't overlook mussels either.

4. Spring Creeks: Creeks rising from the earth like Dandylions from a lawn can stay reasonably clear near their headwaters. In areas with hot springs and such you can improve your chances by moving to areas of ideal water temperature. Note: springs that spill into otherwise muddy lakes can sometimes create small clear water areas with solid action.

5. South Slope Creeks: Watersheds that drain south almost always clean up and warm up faster than watersheds that face north. So check your topographic maps.

6. Pond Pleasures: Farm Ponds in fallow land often lack inlet streams entirely and as soon as the runoff stops, they clear up. This happens fastest in areas with sandy soils or surrounded by bare granite or other rocks.

7. Go with the Flow: "Low flow" sections where reservoirs spill over into rivers, but most of the flow is bypassed into forebays or afterbays, are particularly good. Examples include the Feather River just below Oroville Dam. "Spillover pools" below reservoirs can be good too.

8. Cliff Fishing: Even when runoff muddies lakes and reservoirs you may find pockets of clear water along extremely rocky banks -- see spring creek above. You may also find clear water along the edges of bogs that act as filters to trap mud before it gets to the lake. In the last case, it's important to distinguish between muddy water and water turned brown by tannin and such.

9. Noise Helps: Noisy baits with spinners, internal rattlers and other noisemakers seem to improve results. So, in some cases, to plugs that with internal lights. Bright spinners and spoons in silver seem to work better than painted or dull color lures too.

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