Clear water conditions are very intimidating and scary for many anglers.
You have a bit less freedom to use certain lures and fishing techniques.
Bass can get a very good look at your lures in clear water.
So you need to be using the right lures that will convince bass to bite, even after a good look.
The clearer the water is, the more realistic your lure should be. Most effective clear water lures are going to be soft plastic baits.
Soft plastics look, move, feel, and taste very realistic and enticing for bass. When bass fishing in clear water, I use finesse fishing lures 90% of the time.
Because bass can see so far and easily in clear water, they see countless prey swimming around them all the time.
You need a more subtle touch to catch these bass. Matching the hatch is crucial for clear water bass fishing.
Once you know what the bass are feeding on in your body of water, try to imitate that exact forage as closely as possible.
This depends on who you ask. I consider water to be clear when visibility is over 3 feet.
I consider ultra clear water anything over 10 feet of visibility.
Like I said, these numbers will depend on who you ask, but I don’t change up my fishing techniques until I have more than 3 feet of visibility in still water.
1-3 feet is stained, and less than 1 foot is muddy or murky water.
Also Read: Best Color Lures for Sunny Days
If can sometimes be difficult to cover a lot of water when finesse fishing. The finesse swimbait is my favorite bait to cover lots of clear water.
The subtle and enticing action of the paddle tails catches tons of clear water bass.
There are two main ways I rig my finesse swimbaits. My favorite way is just with a simple jig head.
This can be a ball head jig or a fish head jig. I prefer the fish head jigs because they are more realistic and give a better baitfish profile. But I still use ball head jigs quite often.
The other rigging technique is using a weedless hook with a weight on the hook shaft.
The screw in hook are the easiest to use and look the best in the water.
I rig finesse swimbaits this way when I am fishing around grass and around brush so that I don’t get hung up.
Also Read: How to Rig Paddle Tail Swimbaits
The drop shot might have the best action out of all bass lures and rigs.
The drop shot allows you to suspend a very attractive soft plastic bait 1-2 feet off the bottom.
Keeping the bait a little bit off the bottom helps bass hone in on it and hangs the bait right in front of their face.
The drop shot also allows you to use whatever soft plastic best fits your forage and water conditions.
My two favorites are fluke style baits and a wacky hooked stick bait.
Fluke style baits work especially well in colder months when bass are feeding on dying shad.
The wacky hooked worm seems to work very well during the hot summer months.
Now these are just my two favorite baits. I use many others and whatever matches the hatch the best is what I will usually rig up.
I don’t use spinnerbaits as much in clear water, but they can certainly be effective.
In clear water, I will almost always use a white, double willow leaf spinnerbait.
The white color just works the best it clear water. The double willow leaf is so that I can fish the spinnerbait very fast.
Spinnerbaits are not the most realistic lures, so you don’t want the bass to get a good look at it.
Burning in a white spinnerbait is the best way to trigger reaction bites in clear water.
The only times I use spinnerbaits in clear water is if:
1. I am fishing very shallow water. Less than 3 feet.
2. Bass are busting on schooling shad in the surface.
Also Read: Best Color Spinnerbait for Clear Water
The shaky head is my favorite way to rig a finesse worm. I also will fish lizards and brush hogs on a shaky head, but floating finesse worms work best.
Shaky head work best in water with a clean bottom. If there is a lot of grass, slime, or other muck on the bottom, the shaky head will dig into the debris and lose it’s effectiveness.
Hopping and shaking a finesse worm around catches tons of clear water bass and works especially well for smallmouth bass.
These are the most realistic hard body lures available. When I am strictly targeting big bass, I love throwing a big glide bait or swimbait.
The action of these lures does not only catch fisherman, but perfectly resembles a swimming baitfish and catches tons of big bass.
There are differences between the two lures, but for the sake of brevity, I will talk about them in the same category.
The main problem with these lures is that they tend to be very expensive.
But if you are willing to spend the money, they can catch tons of clear water bass because of how realistic they are.
Also Read: Bass Fishing with Bluegill Swimbaits
Flukes are incredible realistic and enticing baits that work flawlessly in clear water.
They allow you to fish from the bottom all the way to the surface, and give bass an erratic, darting baitfish profile that they just can’t resist.
With all the rigging and retrieval options, it is important to know how to fish a fluke, but once you do, it is an incredible tool for clear water bass fishing.
The scrounger head is one of the best kept secrets in the fishing industry.
The shimmy, shake action paired with a realistic minnow style bait is absolutely deadly in clear, open water.
Think of this bait as a clear water, finesse chatterbait. Scrounger head fishing is one of my all time favorite clear water setups.
Again, this really comes down to matching the hatch. You want to be using colors that very closely resemble the exact forage that bass are feeding on.
If you don’t know what the bass are eating, here are a few colors that work well in all clear water:
These 5 colors will serve you very well in clear water.
Also Read: Best Lure Colors for Winter Bass Fishing
The gear you use ultimately comes down to using as light and low visibility fishing line that you can get away with.
The last thing you want is for a bass to be interested in your lure, but then be scared off by the fishing line.
Fluorocarbon line is by far the best option. You can use monofilament if the water is less than 4 feet of visibility, but any more than that and you need to be using fluorocarbon.
Fluorocarbon is essentially invisible underwater. It is also thinner, which reduces visibility even further.
You also want to use as light line as you can for the same reason. Thinner line is less visible.
When finesse fishing in clear water, I use 6-10 lb test line. If I am using bigger baits, I have to use heavier line accordingly, but the lighter the better.
Clear water fishing does come with it’s challenges, but it is also a great opportunity to catch bass using different techniques.
As long as you are using the right lures and gear, you will have no trouble catching tons of bass in high visibility water.
Clear water is also very beautiful which can further enhance the fishing experience.
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