On Tue, 20 Jun 2006 18:41:10 -0400, (BIG FISH
2006) wrote:

Over the past few years I have been fishing bass tournaments in Michigan
and Indiana. I have had most of my good days on the water on clear
lakes. I fish mostly tubes and craws and sometimes a strike king seris 6
crankbait in perch pattern. But when it comes to stained water I always
seem to come in empty handed, I try the same baits along with slow
rolling a spinnerbait. What can I do to increase my catch?

Move farther north into Michigan or farther south into Kentucky
or Tennessee...:

In all seriousness, it sounds like you've picked up on how to
fish northern waters...but may not have adapted the best to central
and southern waters yet. Geographically speaking, Indiana is a very
long state and there are really 3 different climate zones here and
most bodies of water can be broken into northern Indiana, central
Indiana and southern Indiana. From northern Indiana to central
Michigan, you run across more natural lakes where the waters are
clearer, colder, grassier (on average), less woodier, less creek or
river-oriented and the primary food sources are usually more
baitfish/minnows than crawfish. It's kind of a glacier thing going on
up there and how you go about fishing up there is totally different
(in many ways) than what you need to so in the central and southern
regions. (See the Al Lindner series - ie. Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth
Bass: An In-Fisherman Handbook of Strategies that really do a good job
of explaining different water types.)

When you fish southern Indiana waters, you often are looking at
murkier, warmer, less grass, woodier, more creek or river-oriented
with primary food sources being usually more crawfish than
baitfish/minnows. In other words (and taking a page from Harry n'
Charlie), leave the skimpy spinning gear with 6 pound test and 4"
noodle worms and hairjigs behind and bring your 7' 1/2" flipping
sticks armed with big ol' monster jigs or waggly worms and your 5'
1/2" broom handle rods with baitcasting reels for your spinnerbait and
crankbaiting....

For example, I store all my plastic worms in huge ziplock bags
with the exception of 2 "ready to go" worm boxes (just open plastic
containers that can store 20-30 worm bags). One worm box is for clear
water worming (smaller, more straight worms, purple/greens, blues,
browns OR otherwise known as junebug, watermellon, pumpklinseed) and
another box is for more murky water worming (larger, wider tails, red
shad, chartreuse tipped). Before I go on a certain kind of water, I
know I can leave certain colors of crankbait boxes behind. I break my
crankbait boxes into six basic colors: 1) whites, 2) baby bass
(greens), 3) chartreuse, 4) firetigers, 5) orange/crawfish, and 6)
chromes. For example, if I'm hitting a northern Indiana natural lake
next weekend, I know I can leave chartreuse and firetigers behind.
Plus, I know I'm not likely to throw any chrome. (To guarantee I
don't screw myself, I'll carry just a few of the colors I'm not
bringing in mass in a small Plano plastic stoway (ie. Plano 2-3700).

If I'm fishing smallmouth rivers, I've got a worm bag that is
devoted to that kind of fishing (ie. tubes, small worms) and small
crankbait boxes for smallmouth colors (ie. chartreuse, crawfish, etc).
If I'm fishing largemouth rivers, I've got certain plastics and cranks
that I'm thinking of. Same goes with spinners, buzzers, etc..

Seems to me we had some posts on this subject a few years back
where many threw up some different fishing situations/factors that
make you change techniques or how ya go about things:

1. Region of country body of water is located in? (southern Florida
vs. central Indiana)
2. Natural or Manmade body of water? (Wawasee/Tippecanoe vs.
Monroe/Patoka/Brookville)
3. Pond, Lake, Creek or River?
4. Highland (usually steeper banks and hillier) or lowland (usually
flatter)? (ie. Dale Hollow vs. Kentucky/Barkley)
5. Deep or shallow (ie. Dale Hollow vs. Kentucky/Barkley)
6. Water clarity: Clear, Murky or Muddy? (Wawasee vs. Monroe vs. Ohio
River)
7. Predominant structu Wood, Grass, Rock (Ohio River vs. Wawasee
vs. St. Jospeh River)
8. Predominant forage and secondary forage: Shad (type), Crawfish or
Other
9. Stable or Variant level of water (ie. tidal, flood control)
10. Stagnant or Moving water (Monroe vs.Tennesee River)
11. Size of water (ie. Okeechobee vs. Wawasee)
12. Degree and type of pressure (ie. lakes near Atlanta vs. lakes in
boondocks of Alabama/Mississippi OR jetskiers vs. other bassboats)
13. Level of pollution/runoff (Chicago sewage/industrial drainage vs.
Southern Indiana farmland nutrient or insecticide or fertilizer
runoff)
14. Animal activity in body of water (birds? turtles? muskrats?
snakes? deer? etc)
15. Season (ie. early pre-spawn, pre-spawn, spawn, immediate
post-spawn, post-spawn, summer, early fall, fall, late fall, winter)
16. Weather: Sun, Cloudy, Rain, Wind, etc...

17-100 - Others?

These things really come into play and 1 situation or factor
often completely changes the way I fish a body of water.

--
Dwayne E. Cooper, Atty at Law
Indianapolis, IN
Email:
Web Page: http://www.cooperlegalservices.com
Personal Fishing Web Page: http://www.hoosierwebsites.com/OnTheWater
Dog Fishing: http://www.hoosierwebsites.com/onthe...fishing040.htm
1st Annual ROFB Classic Winner