I fished from 10-4 today on Sanford Lake. The day started with clouds and a 10 mph breeze. The first thing I noticed was the water clarity less than a foot and the temps were in the low 70's.
I was able to pull one fish from a stump by the US10 bridge using a black with purple flake 5" worm rigged texas. That was all I could find today. I tried deeper however, did not get a hit.
I think with the extremely stained water, they are holding real tight to structure.
I ended up messing up 4 reels to the point they need to be stripped and respooled. That made it frustrating and caused me to lose my focus. Also the boaters on that lake are crazy when the sun comes out. With it being so narrow, the waves just keep going and going and going...
Messing reels up how? Professional overrun?
If I recall correctly, the sequence went as follows:
C-Rig snapped off and the spool went nuts. Had to strip and respool that one.
Tub with 60 degree jig head had too much line twist and caused a bigger mess than I thought...Had to strip and respool once I got home.
Drop shot line twist went nuts and caused me to cut a good 30' off to fix.
Flippin stick had massive birds nest which leads me to a question-
What kind of braid do you all use? I have spiderwire EZ something on right now and don't like it.
Also, do you all have any luck fishing deeper water in low visibility waters?
I have also used the spiderwire you speak of. It digs into itself and at least for me with casting gear my frogs would always stop in mid air because that line never flew off the spool smoothly. Spent a little more and went with power pro and have not had the issue since. Even with skipping docks it comes off really smooth (casting gear). I think it has to do with the shape of the line.
That is exactly what happens to me too. It seems the harder I throw the lure, the more it hangs in mid air. If I make a less powerful throw, the lure will go but not travel very far. I don't like it at all and has caused me to miss countless minutes during tournaments. I have heard all great things about PowerPro. I will spool up with that next.
What about low visibility waters. What do you all fish when this happens?
Sanford is always low visibility like that. Good days are 2-3ft of visibility but average is 2ft at best. With soft plastics its always better to try bulkier baits with more tail vibration. Thing that is tough this year on Sanford is they killed a lot of weed growth. Find the best green weeds you can and fish are there. Also in that muddy water the slower you can work your bait, sometimes the better of you are. Give the fish time to find your bait and work the 10-14ft drops near good weeds as slow as you can
I have read there are different types of muddy water (mudlines, layered, and cold). Do you feel that the water is muddy to the bottom or do you think the top layer is muddy and the bottom has a little more clarity?
I feel that water is mostly stained. I do think its a little clearer down but not sure how much clearer. When the top is muddy or really stained there isn't much light passing through the top so I approach it as its all bad visibility for the fish
I use Sufix 832 for baitcasting and Sufix performance braid for spinning. I found power pro too stiff. As for drop shot line twist, I've had good luck this season with VMC spinshot hooks. I like the gamakatsus with the swivel, but they're really expensive.