Fishing Articles
Turbid Water for Fish on the Bite
Anything that puts fish on alert will take them
off the bite
Timothy Kusherets
When we get cold, hungry, scared, and tired we do things to make ourselves
more comfortable. We modify each stressful situation to better suit
our needs; it’s the same for fish. Anything that puts them on
alert will take them off the bite, and that is true for any species
of fish anywhere but in particular Steelhead and Salmon.
One of the best times to go fishing is something most fishermen will avoid.
Turbid water diminishes the clarity of rivers, streams, and estuaries.
It is a time when fish will gravitate nearer the surface and that is the
time to fish for them. When they are unable to see a potential predator
they go on the bite and have no qualms about putting their backs out of
the water. It is the veritable ostrich theory; if they hide their heads
then the rest of the body can’t be seen. See the flaw in the theory?
But for fish, the reasoning works. Fishermen don’t want to fish
in water with limited visibility and fish gravitate towards the surface,
so as far as they’re concerned, they’re right. Any offering
picked up during these conditions should be done with scent, and a lot
of it; fish will strike harder than usual since they’re on the bite.
It is the lack of pressure that puts them on the bite. As many anglers
know, the darker the water is the more likely that rain and wind will
accompany the near zero visibility of any given body of water. It is the
weather fishermen attempt to avoid and in doing so pass over grand opportunities
to get fish on the hook. The opposite is true when the water and weather
recede.
 Though
the river had begun to recede in this photograph, you can see that the
turbidity of the river was enough that visibility was still nearly zero.
These two fish on the stringer show that even with no range of sight
fish could still be caught using nothing more than a good scent and
a sharp hook. Oddly enough, no other anglers were seen on the river
this day even though fish were everywhere.
As river and estuaries clear up out comes the angler to find fish initially
on the bite. It is a transitory condition that keeps fish on the bite,
fishermen fishing, and neither experiencing pressure…for a short period
of time anyway. As turbidity subsides and visibility increases fish
will abruptly go off the bite leaving fishermen to scratch their heads.
All any fisherman has to do is ask himself a simple question. "What
has changed since the last fish bit?" In many cases, fishermen start
at the crack of dawn and as the daylight progressively gets brighter
fish go off the bite. Fish can see fishermen and that is the vital component
of pressure they feel. To alleviate this form of pressure it is to the
fisherman to get down low, whether in a boat or on the bank. Getting
close to the surface of the water will diminish the shadow profile we
portray for fish to see. They don't care whether they perceive anglers
to be birds or bears, they only know that it is a potential predator
and that is enough to make them stop biting. Fishing a river last year,
I had the opportunity to prove this point to a small group of anglers.
The color of the river was light green, and with our polarized glasses
we were able to see scores of Chinook, Coho, and Steelhead. None of
us were hooking into fish so I sat down right there at the rivers edge.
The others looked at me as though I had lost my mind. Given that all
of us (about 6 or 7 guys) were reasonably far from each other sitting
down got me closer to the surface, which made any refractive image I
was casting, disappear (refraction works just as well beneath the surface
as it does from above). The very first cast I made on my derriere got
me a nice steelhead. Clumsily I got up to fight the fish, but the most
significant thing for me was the intensity of the strike. The hen I
hooked into hit the corkie (lil' corky) as hard as if the visibility
of the water was zero. The other fishermen came running over to see
what I had been using. We compared drift-fishing setups and found that
my setup was not that dissimilar to the others. After landing the beauty
and releasing her I went back and sat down. I got another fish on the
very next cast. Soon all the other fishermen were on their knees or
butts fishing, and that's when the bite went on for everyone. We caught
and released many fish from that time until dark. It was a blast. I
suppose there are two things that fishermen should do to get fish on
when fish go off the bite: be willing to be flexible and entertain ideas
that do produce fish even if the premise seems off the cuff; entertain
the idea of what the environment is like for fish and work from there.
It is surprising to me to find that anglers will not risk embarrassment
to get fish on, but if sitting on your hind end is a risk then it's
a small price to pay to get them to bite.
 This
great looking eighteen-pound Coho was taken on a Daredevil and a “straight”
four-pound test line in water that had zero visibility. The water had
been rising and threatened to blowout, but I decided to stay and fish
until the fishing conditions threatened flood-stage. I was able to hook
into this fish just before the bite went off for the rest of the day
by using heavy scent and fishing the holds with lures close to the bank,
which is where all the fish gravitated to as the river began to flood.
Taking pressure off fish is something that can be done routinely. The
nature of fish is to survive and propagate and their genetic makeup
allows them to automatically, instictively, adapt to fishing coditons
that anglers take for granted, and if you're going to catch fish you
have to think like one. Ask yourself something the next time it gets
cold. If getting cold makes you move slowly then what will it do to
fish that are in an even colder environment? Lethargy is another form
of pressure that puts fish off the bite. Do you see what I mean? Fishing
pressure puts fish off the bite but understanding how fish experience
pressure can put them back on the bite if you know how to counter it.
If fishing during the most optimal times came down to a single moment,
I would say, without a doubt, that fishing during times of turbidity
ensures the best fishing opportunities. Don’t be surprised if
you find that you’re the only fisherman on the river. It’s
always surprising to me to find that the best time to fish is the most
ignored time of all. Turbid water for fish on the bite ensures anglers
that they'll be able to enjoy the outdoors in solitude, land fish, and
have stories to tell the grand children that are true but sound like
tall tales.
© Timothy Kusherets, 2004/09 |
