water colour advice 2025
Scarborough817 reply :
ok guys i need a little help here, what colour or visibility would you say this water is? this was taken in late september the ledge you see is roughly 3'-5' below the surface
Bankbeater reply :
Around here that is clear water, but I don't know what that lake is usually like.
J Francho reply :
Tannic.
Scarborough817 reply :
would make sense since there are a lot of leaves so it's tea coloured
Scarborough817 reply :
On 1/6/2016 at 1:50 AM, Bankbeater said:Around here that is clear water, but I don't know what that lake is usually like.
that's normal for this lake i've just never really tried to figure out what colour it is
Paul Roberts reply :
It's "stained" (also "tannic" or "tea-colored" -if you only drink black tea 
). Lotsa anglers confuse "stain" with "turbidity". The former is due to dissolved organic material -usually from leaves, vegetation, wood. The latter refers to material suspended in the water such as algae, plant, or soil particles (usually from clay to silts).
J Francho reply :
This is "clear" water:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqCLApHsqzs
Jake the Cake reply :
On 1/6/2016 at 1:50 AM, Bankbeater said:Around here that is clear water, but I don't know what that lake is usually like.
Lol, I have to agree with Bankbeater. To me that's clear. But I'm also used to fishing in waters like this.
Scarborough817 reply :
this is normally what the tap will look like up there i know that's a little more filtered than it is in the lake but it isn't that dark
mbtharp1 reply :
I would call that stained water. It's about the same clarity as the water here in Illinois, but ours has a green tint instead of brown.
Scarborough817 reply :
On 1/6/2016 at 5:27 AM, mbtharp1 said:I would call that stained water. It's about the same clarity as the water here in Illinois, but ours has a green tint instead of brown.
well i guess my swimbait bite will be a little less than expected
Catt reply :
I'd call it fished!
Cause I'd be on it like white on rice!
Agree with J & Paul 
WRB reply :
Colour in the Qweens English!
Tanic is the right word for stained brown.
You should have good water clarity for sight feeding bass with your swimbaits.
If you are curious make a Succhi disk drop it down on the string, should be able to see it down at 8-10'. A white spinnerbaits also works, drop it down until it disappears, lift up with the rod to determine depth.
Tom
Paul Roberts reply :
Color and visibility aren't on and the same.
I'd call 5ft of visibility (as the OPer mentions) pretty "clear" -referring to how deep one can see down- and stained brown (tannic).
Clarity is usually more apt to to be affected by turbidity than staining simply due to respective particle sizes and sheer amount of them.
Turkey sandwich reply :
Bingo. That looks like a lot of visibility and the freedom to fish almost anything. Natural colors and maybe a chartreuse dip on plastics would be my go to.
WRB reply :
I remember fishing a lake in Ontario south of Kenora called Highwind.The water in Highwind looked like black coffe, very dark brown stained water. The odd thing it was a good trout lake with big Pike, granite rock with no vegetation that we found. We used silver 1oz Kastmaster spoons that looked gold in the water and you could see the spoon easily from 50 feet away 5 feet down. The Pike hammered the spoons, they were almost black very dark green color. We kept a lake trout and a Pike, all the fish had salmon red meat, indicating the fish were feeding on snails. Darkest Tanic water that I ever fished and the fishing was good.
Tom
soflabasser reply :
Looks like tannic water with decent visibility.Bass should bite well.
Paul Roberts reply :
On 1/6/2016 at 8:07 AM, WRB said:I remember fishing a lake in Ontario south of Kenora called Highwind.The water in Highwind looked like black coffe, very dark brown stained water. The odd thing it was a good trout lake with big Pike, granite rock with no vegetation that we found. We used silver 1oz Kastmaster spoons that looked gold in the water and you could see the spoon easily from 50 feet away 5 feet down. The Pike hammered the spoons, they were almost black very dark green color. We kept a lake trout and a Pike, all the fish had salmon red meat, indicating the fish were feeding on snails. Darkest Tanic water that I ever fished and the fishing was good.
Tom
Many far northern lakes are very dark stained, being fed by bogs -"bog stained" they are called.
Scarborough817 reply :
thanks a lot for all the info guys much appreciated
scarborough
senile1 reply :
On 1/6/2016 at 7:03 AM, Paul Roberts said:Color and visibility aren't on and the same.
I'd call 5ft of visibility (as the OPer mentions) pretty "clear" -referring to how deep one can down, and stained brown (tannic).
Clarity is usually more apt to to be affected by turbidity than staining simply due to respective particle sizes and sheer amount of them.
I was going to say the same thing. I've fished a lot of tannic waters that had a few feet of visibility. In my region, 5 feet of visibility is clear water.
bigbill reply :
I'd fish it with a combination of natural color and brighter color baits. It's borderline stained to me. Slightly stained?
Fishinthefish reply :
Stained water with good visability.
EricTheAngler reply :
If its tanic water colored, use sprayed grass zoom worm color. My high school bass coach taught me that!
Scarborough817 reply :
On 1/7/2016 at 9:51 PM, EricTheAngler said:If its tanic water colored, use sprayed grass zoom worm color. My high school bass coach taught me that!
I've used sprayed grass in the past it has never produced for me black and blue and bluegill colours seem to do the best. though next year i will be trying trout since there used to be brook trout in the lake
EricTheAngler reply :
On 1/7/2016 at 9:59 PM, Scarborough817 said:I've used sprayed grass in the past it has never produced for me black and blue and bluegill colours seem to do the best. though next year i will be trying trout since there used to be brook trout in the lake
Oh, I guess i live in northcarolina with different factors along with tanic acid. Good luck man!
WRB reply :
The bass in any body of water have been successful at finding prey there, whatever that food source maybe. Don't get locked into colors, experiment.
Tom
Sandhillcrab reply :
Looks stained. So use dark colord lurns. Up here in MN most our water is clear. But there's plenty lakes that are also stained' "root beer" water is what a call it.
Bassguytom reply :
On 1/6/2016 at 4:49 AM, Scarborough817 said:this is normally what the tap will look like up there i know that's a little more filtered than it is in the lake but it isn't that dark
So you pull your drinking water directly out of the lake?
Scarborough817 reply :
On 1/12/2016 at 5:26 AM, Bassguytom said:So you pull your drinking water directly out of the lake?
our tap water comes from the lake yes but we do not drink it, it is used for dishes and bathing then it goes into a septic system
ward131 reply :
On 1/12/2016 at 5:29 AM, Scarborough817 said:our tap water comes from the lake yes but we do not drink it, it is used for dishes and bathing then it goes into a septic system
My water comes from our pond. Filtered and passes thought a U/V light. Great water!
bonzai22 reply :
I have done well in similar water with spinnerbaits with gold blades. I got a lot more bites with gold blades than silver. Must just be easier for fish to see in that kind of stain.
HoosierHawgs reply :
On 1/13/2016 at 3:05 AM, bonzai22 said:I have done well in similar water with spinnerbaits with gold blades. I got a lot more bites with gold blades than silver. Must just be easier for fish to see in that kind of stain.
Interesting. I've never payed special attention to blade colors, looks like i will have to do that a little more.
N Florida Mike reply :
On 1/7/2016 at 6:47 AM, bigbill said:I'd fish it with a combination of natural color and brighter color baits. It's borderline stained to me. Slightly stained?
I agree-slightly stained
bigbill reply :
Don't forget smaller natural colored baits fished faster in clear to slightly stained water, in slightly stained to stained water conditions it's the medium sized brighter colored baits fished slower and your largest, brightest color baits fished the slowest in muddy conditions.
To me there is a bait color and size overlap between clear to slightly stained water conditions. The presentation and depth is the key too.
I fish a few drop offs from shore. As I go deeper I believe the water conditions can change in the water column. You can have clear on top but as we go down stained or even muddy conditions can happen on the bottom. Probably a current on the bottom changes it. Or a very large snapping turtle churning up the bottom can cause the change in water conditions too. Look for bubbles on the surface. My smaller places have bigger turtles. If signs of turtles are then move. I'm giving my tips and experiences out now.
I'm throwing a amber red flake senko c rig and I'm catching bass in this one area nice 2 to 3 lbers. For quite a few outings. Then nothing, nada, zip, zero. I change to a electric blue silver flake senko and fish on. It's the water conditions plus the bass can't see the Amber color.
Another time there my craw crankbaits were hot. All of a sudden nothing. It's very slow. The greens, the browns, shad colors, chrome, blue, nada. I put on a firetiger bingo fish on.
When in doubt firetiger is you freind. If your fishing from shore or towards the shoreline be flexible with colors.
scaleface reply :
I dont know what color it is but theres two spots I'd be hitting hard .
Scarborough817 reply :
On 1/18/2016 at 9:00 PM, scaleface said:I dont know what color it is but theres two spots I'd be hitting hard .
which ones would you be hitting?
scaleface reply :
On 1/19/2016 at 12:10 AM, Scarborough817 said:which ones would you be hitting?
I can see a long point with a hump close by and if those two are connected by a saddle [ which it appears to be ] that would be some pretty good structure .
scaleface reply :
On 1/6/2016 at 4:45 AM, Jake the Cake said:Lol, I have to agree with Bankbeater. To me that's clear. But I'm also used to fishing in waters like this.
Mark Twain ?
Scarborough817 reply :
On 1/19/2016 at 12:15 AM, scaleface said:I can see a long point with a hump close by and if those two are connected by a saddle [ which it appears to be ] that would be some pretty good structure .
only problem is it's all small rock so i would have to throw a crank or maybe a top hook swimbait
Jake the Cake reply :
On 1/19/2016 at 12:21 AM, scaleface said:Mark Twain ?
That's a stock picture of the Meramec River which I fish a lot, but it no doubt looks like the same color as Mark Twain. I've found most of my Midwest fishing is in waters like these. Have you experienced the same? Or am I just good at finding muddy waters, lol
scaleface reply :
On 1/6/2016 at 4:45 AM, Jake the Cake said:
On 1/19/2016 at 1:24 AM, Jake the Cake said:That's a stock picture of the Meramec River which I fish a lot, but it no doubt looks like the same color as Mark Twain. I've found most of my Midwest fishing is in waters like these. Have you experienced the same? Or am I just good at finding muddy waters, lol
I have that luck too . I only fished Truman once and thats the way it looked .
scaleface reply :
On 1/19/2016 at 12:21 AM, Scarborough817 said:only problem is it's all small rock so i would have to throw a crank or maybe a top hook swimbait
That shoudnt be much of a problem . I dont know how experienced you are with a Texas rig but once you learn how to tell when it touches bottom { the line will slack up some when using mono } , immediately lift it back up before it has time to settle in crevices . I fish rip rap banks with large rocks using a t rig .
Scarborough817 reply :
On 1/19/2016 at 3:02 AM, scaleface said:That shoudnt be much of a problem . I dont know how experienced you are with a Texas rig but once you learn how to tell when it touches bottom { the line will slack up some when using mono } , immediately lift it back up before it has time to settle in crevices . I fish rip rap banks with large rocks using a t rig .
oh ya i know i could also use a football jig as for the texas rig it's more so not wanting to lose tungsten
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