Spring Muddy Water Bass Fishing

The spring season often brings muddy water with it. The large amounts of rainfall during the springtime washes tons of dirt and debris into the water, making it dark and muddy.

Depending on your fishing experience, this can sometimes make fishing very difficult. But as long as you know how to approach these conditions, you can take full advantage of the amazing spring fishing season.

Where to Find the Bass

As water temps rise in the springtime, bass will be moving up shallow to get ready for the spawn. And when the water gets muddy and visibility gets low, bass will hold very tightly to structure.

This could be shallow rocks, wood, docks, or the emerging grass that will pop us in the shallow water during the spring season.

Shallow cover is the name of the game when spring muddy water bass fishing. The spring pushes them up shallow and the muddy water pushes them tight to cover.

When to Fish

When it comes to the time of day, it usually doesn’t matter. Springtime fishing (or the pre-spawn phase) is when bass feed way up to prepare for the spawn.

So the bass are pretty much hungry and feeding all hours of the day. As the spring season continues, the morning and evening hours will become more productive, but for the most part, as long as you’re on the water, you’re fishing at the right time.

Lures to Use

Power fishing is going to be the name of the game for these conditions. Bass are aggressive and looking to feed and they can’t see very far, so sound and vibration are critical.

Finesse baits just aren’t able to draw bass in enough to be efficient techniques. Although there are plenty of baits that will catch bass in these conditions, I have found that these 3 are the best.

1. Chatterbait

No matter what springtime or pre-spawn list you look at, a chatterbait will be near the top of the list.

And it is by far my personal favorite lure to throw during the muddy spring water conditions.

Chatterbaits have a thumping vibration that helps bass track it down in muddy water. And with a jighead and single hook design, the chatterbaits is perfect for fishing sparse cover like wood, grass, and rocks.

2. Squarebill Crankbait

Squarebills are always muddy water killers. They bounce off rocks and wood extremely well in the shallow water and have a super wide wobble to draw in bass.

The treble hooks also help to make sure you catch the bass that are just swiping at the bait because they can’t get a good look at it.

Squarebill crankbaits don’t work quite as well around grass, but when fishing wood and rocks, it is hard to beat.

3. Spinnerbait

Spinnerbaits have been surpassed by other lures in recent years, but they are still a fantastic lure, especially during the spring season.

Spinnerbaits seem to work best for fish sparse or overhanging cover in shallow water. Things like dock posts, standing timber, or branches hanging over the bank.

The blades of the spinnnerbait give it plenty of vibration and flash to help the bass find it in the muddy water.

Best Lure Colors

You only need 3 colors when bass fishing in muddy spring water.

Red

For decades now, red has been the most popular lure color for the spring time. Every angler swears that it is by far the best color for spring fishing.

Out of all the colors on the light spectrum, bass can see red the easiest. So in muddy water, it is much easier for them to see red lures which leads to more bites.

Although there are a few theories why red lures work in the spring, this is the primary one.

Black

No matter what season it is, black is a great lure color for muddy water. The black lure creates a more solid silhouette in the water that helps bass find the lure.

And because just about everything just looks like a shadow in muddy water, black is still a very natural color.

White

If there are lots of shad in your lake, a solid white will work great. White lures actually have a similar concept to the black. But instead of a solid shadowy look, white lures have a solid, reflective look.

The bright white color is still very visible, and a great shad imitation if bass are feeding on shad.

Reeling this In

When the spring rains dirty up the water, don’t let that keep you from fishing. This can be one of the best times of year to catch some really big bass because they are feeding heavily in the shallows.

Just make sure you are using the right baits and putting them in the right spots.