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Part two – water clarity
bIGGer
fly tactics for
baSS
Water clarity is a actor that stronglyinuences your bass fshing as ithas a major eect on fsh behaviour.
Jim Hendrick
gives us an insight…
T
oo clear or too dirty – bass behaviouris dierent in both situations andyou will need to apply dierentmethods to catch them. In clear water, share oten visible when swimming and huntingand it’s oten the case that while the numbero ollows will increase, the number o takeswill decrease. Fishing in clear water can beexciting, as a hooked bass willoten be ‘mobbed’ by othermembers o the shoal, as youattempt to land the sh. On theother hand, when aced withimpenetrable, brownish-greenwater we stand and look andwonder what’s going on downthere, or, indeed, i there areany sh about at all!My guiding services operatemostly on a southern orsoutheastern-acing shoreline. I very seldomventure north along the east coast to do anybass shing with customers. The reasonsor this are all related to water clarity. Asyou move north past Wexord Harbour, andbeyond the Raven Point, the sea is in constantcontact with lots o sand. The constantinteraction with this sand means that there’soten a lot o suspended particles in thewater. There is sand all along the east coasto Wexord combined with channels andbars, very strange tidal phenomena urthercomplicate this. The water also takes a longtime to clear once the sand is in suspension.Further south past the southeast corner,there are still vast quantities o sand and longbeaches, but the sand particleshave dierent qualities onthe southern coasts. They areheavier than those along theeast coast, so I believe thatthey descend aster. There aremany rocky platorms and,oten, deeper water closerto shore. Currents tend to bestronger and aster, there areewer straight lines and muchmore ‘mixed’ ground.We are talking strictly shore shing atthe moment. Estuary shing has its owncomplexities regarding water clarity, such asrun-o rom the land and rivers.Ater a long period o north ornorthwesterly breezes, the water clarity isoten amazingly clear on the south coast. Achange to a westerly breeze won’t aect thisclarity adversely. But as it swings urthersouth, then the longer the wind blows. and thegreater its strength. the more unclear the waterwill become as wave and swell action putparticles into suspension.A lot o seaweed deposits on the beach areusually an indication o previous high-waveand strong-wind activity. This will rot andbecome mixed into the sand along the beach.When waves hit this sand again they addthese decomposing particles to the water. Thesea becomes ull o debris and you can otenwitness quite a vivid two-tone scenario o blue and green (or even brown) as the watercloser to the shore becomes dirty.
H c as Fshng
Let’s imagine you arrive at your shingdestination to nd it warm, a little cloudy andmisty. High tide is in about three hours andit’s a spring. The wind is rom the southwestblowing orce three. “Perect!” you think.Then you walk into the water and you can’tsee your eet. The cause o this dirty waterhas been wind orce, wind direction and theprevious number o hours that it has blownor. Combine this with heavy rain and youoten have miserable water conditions.
wh hhnd hngn nss;h hs h gn fsh.
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