Water Clarity

Friday, April 26^th was much like other Fridays at school…but it was the end of a pretty long week and through most of the week it had been wet and when combined with busy, well that meant that I had not been fishing since the previous weekend. I drove the old red Suburban to school and within a half an hour from the end of school I was changing into my waders and preparing to fish for smallmouth down one of my most favored creeks. I knew the water levels would be up….but wasn’t sure how clear the water would be; what I didn’t expect was what happened first. As I stepped into the flowing water and took the fly from my rod I looked downstream in time to see a Bald Eagle flying about 15 feet over the creek and heading right at me. I won’t say I jumped back, but it did startle me to see such a big bird flying so low…the crows were buzzing at and around the eagle and they continued to dive bomb the big bird with regularity all the way up the creek! Once again, things you see when you get out into nature…pretty amazing!

OK…so after that excitement I took the time to pay close attention to the stream and yes, it was for sure up, about a foot and the water was indeed flowing pretty swiftly, more so than usual…but the big factor was quickly evident; the stream was stained about halfway on my own scale. Turbidity is the term used to describe how ‘dirty’ a lake or stream is and biologists use a Secchi Disk to determine the turbidity; the disk is lowered into the water until it can no longer be seen, this depth is then recorded. The Secchi Disk is generally used in lakes and in slow moving streams…that being the case I will refer back to my own system, the stream was about halfway between clear and non-fishable.

Water clarity is vital to fishing success because a fish generally won’t eat what it can’t see. Yes, fish do have lateral lines that help out much of the time but in these small streams the smallmouth follow and chase what they think is a baitfish and for sure it helps your chances in catching fish to have a color that the fish themselves can actually see and follow.

Now here is where most folks think that because the stream is stained that it is going to be no good…well, that just isn’t the case. In fact (my opinion again) I like to fish a stream with a little stain, maybe at 3 or 4 on a scale of 10. The reason is two-fold, usually this means the water is up and this also means that these ambush fish are likely to follow and be aggressive and secondly, the fish themselves can’t see you as easily. What I have found fly-fishing is that I don’t have to be as careful when there is a slight to medium stain on the water. One of the toughest times I have each year is in the summer when the water levels drop and the color of the water drops to a 1 or so on the above scale. It can be almost impossible to stalk close enough to actually cast a fly into a pool…so I go back to my scale and the water on this particular Friday was at about 5.

The next step is in picking out a color that the fish will be able to see and yet represents a color of acceptance, by that I mean a flashing neon orange fly may not work because these fish aren’t stupid and know what is and isn’t a possibility. When the water is stained I have two go to colors; yellow or lime green (chartreuse), others may have a variety they use, not me, one of these two colors will work and that is all I need to know. On this day I decided to go with a heavy chartreuse bunny leach as I wanted both a fly that could be seen and one that I could fish from the bottom point of a hole to the top…with the water flowing swiftly the added weight would help me to get the fly low enough in the water column.

The first couple holes I came to both gave up one small (12”) smallie. That was a good sign that the fish were looking and my fly was in the strike zone. As I neared the deepest hole on this stretch of water I carefully started at the very top of the run and worked my way methodically down through the stream into the deeper portion. Once again, when the water clarity is low…you will need to be more methodical and place the fly in every nook and cranny that you think might actually hold a fish as they can’t see across the pool to come and get the fly. I was about halfway down the pool, I  made a long cast of about 30 feet into the right hand portion of the current and just allowed the fly to swing from right to the left edge of the current…I could feel the fly vibrating due to the flow of water over the fly-line. I made a couple small strips and then again, left the fly to ‘vibrate’. A couple more strips and another pause…when I felt a pop and snap set the rod. It was at that moment that I knew I had hooked a substantial fish. I cleared the line with my left hand and got the fish on the reel and finally could feel the full weight of my adversary. This is where experience paid off and I just allowed the fish to pull against the stream and the drag of the reel…up, down, left, right and in a few seconds I was able to work the fish into slower water. It was then and there that I could see that I had landed a trophy…this big hen was full of eggs and would provide a passel of new life for this small stream. A couple of photos and a quick measurement and back to the depths she went…another catch for another day.

This spring when you are out fishing your favorite lake, pond or stream…give water clarity some thought and I know you’ll do very well as we all Enjoy the Great Outdoors.