Caught my limit of skunks on the Blackwater

[coheasion]

Arrived Saturday morning around 10 AM and hitched a ride to Bayside to pick my boat up.  Dale at Bayside did some work on my engine it and I couldn't be more pleased with the work he did and how he handled everything.  Didn't get back to my place and get fishing gear etc loaded up until about 2PM.  spent the rest of Sat evening catching bait.

Started early Sunday morning around the 3 islands area - lots of gulls in the area but they were all just spread out and not actively feeding.  Pulled some boards for an hour and a half and nothing.  Went to another creek and saw jmr and Lund1 and each of us had some nervous baits but none of us ever hooked up.  Tried the main river channel a bit further up the BW...no success there either.  Although I did discover a nice new bait catching spot which is nice - pulled up 2 dozen dollar bill size shad in 2 throws.

Fished until about 2PM and called it a weekend - completely skunked.



Quick question for some of you old-timers pertaining to water temps and stained water.  The clearer water I found was in the 42-43 degree range and the muddier stuff was in the 45-46 degree range.

1st - is this normal?
2nd - I stayed in the muddy water thinking the warmer water would hold the fish and I certainly found plenty of bait but no stripers - so this may actually answer question #3 but just looking for opinions
3rd - Do the fish generally prefer the clear water at the expense of the colder water temps?

Can't wait for the upcoming tournament to redeem myself and throw those skunks overboard!

[Gator]

1. Yes it is normal. Just like a black car vs. a white car in the sun. the darker car gets much hotter.

2. Many different opinions on this. I like the stained water to a certain degree. If there is bait there are predators around.

3. See #2

[mwardncsu]

There is colored/stained and then there is just butt nasty muddy water.... I don't have much use for muddy water - best to anchor up and cut-bait if that's your water option to fish. Stained water on the other hand as Gator said can work....

If you can find a clear mud-line transition from very muddy to much clearer, then fishing just below the mud-line can also be a good place to target.

[coheasion]

Mar 7, 2016 9:09:59 GMT -5 mwardncsu said:

There is colored/stained and then there is just butt nasty muddy water.... I don't have much use for muddy water - best to anchor up and cut-bait if that's your water option to fish. Stained water on the other hand as Gator said can work....

If you can find a clear mud-line transition from very muddy to much clearer, then fishing just below the mud-line can also be a good place to target.

This is what we had to work with on the upper BW - looked like this from b48 to about Standiford.  After Standiford it was stained until gills and then cleared up after passing gills.

[jmr04]

Mar 7, 2016 10:56:28 GMT -5 coheasion said:

Mar 7, 2016 9:09:59 GMT -5 mwardncsu said:

There is colored/stained and then there is just butt nasty muddy water.... I don't have much use for muddy water - best to anchor up and cut-bait if that's your water option to fish. Stained water on the other hand as Gator said can work....

If you can find a clear mud-line transition from very muddy to much clearer, then fishing just below the mud-line can also be a good place to target.

This is what we had to work with on the upper BW - looked like this from b48 to about Standiford.  After Standiford it was stained until gills and then cleared up after passing gills.

Yeah Chris, I saw enough of that this weekend. I did notice about half way into staniford it cleared up pretty good until you got all the way in the back.