Clear Water Tactics

[seadog]

Favourite clear water tactic.

we are fishing a comp in 2 weeks at a notoriously slow and clear dam.
The fish arent in abundance at all, however they are florida.
So what are you fav clear water tactics.

Ive found firetiger in both topwater and crank actually works rather well, strangely enough.
And obviously scaling down. But what colours and baits do you guys shmaak, i want to get together a few little things in my arsenal so i can whip some ass.

so far i have the shaky head, Thanks to crankbaitcarl......
and im considering a sliiightly weighted junior fluke, but am not sure how it will fall though.
What about you guys....????
Peace out, The dog.

[Tornado]

Downgrade line (depending on structure) go as light as possible when worming and weightless fluke is dynamite.If u gonna use spinnerbait or otherwise then burn that bait really fast - and long casts - remember in clear water fish are very skittish cause predators can also c them and the fooshies are tuned into this aspect big time - so slow down with noise factor on the boat and almost treat the outing as if u are stalking a kudu bull - enjoy

[August]

I usually down grade my line.I like to fish a mojo or a weightless fluke(jnr if its very clear).I stick to natural colors(watermelon baised).My prefered choice is a watermelon red flake weightless fluke on thin line.

[seadog]

augie, do you put any weight on your junior fluke, cause it wil take FOREVER to get down. I was thinking a little weight on it. and i dont think ive seen ANYONE fish a weightless junior fluke, up here anyways...

[August]

Depends where i find the fish.But I like to fish it weightless.I always fish the jnr's at ebenezer for the smallies(mornings up to 9 or 10 o clock and evenings,and on a cloudy day a pink color,but thats just me).If I do put a weight on I usually go for a small mojo.Works well for me.I know a lot of people that fish it with a splitshot(there was also a forum a while back on spiltshot,so its also worth a try). You just have to see what you prefer,try both and decide. I like the weightless because I fish it a jerk and die retrieve.The both the jerk and the die brings me a lot of strikes(I usually play around with the time it sinks,and the time varies depending on how active they are).Some days Ill bring the fluke almost on the surface,other days barely move it on the bottum. I wil not easily fish a weightless in deeper than 4m except if I see they are sitting in the upper part of the water colum OR if they really want it slow. I like the weightless one more because I get a better action out of the lure than with a mojo. But when fishing is hard a Mojo will almost certainly produce.
But all this differs from angler to angler. This is what I like,and how I like it :blue-biggrin:

[bassmaster]

Dog, two words... pink flukes!!

Aiii!

[August]

Dog, two words... pink flukes!!

Aiii!

I love my pink flukes!! Got about a half a mil in my boat :blue-badgrin: :blue-biggrin: :blue-razz:

[Shannon]

SeaBiscuit a Fluke was designed to be fished weightless, its actually a jerkbait.
Fish it on Fluoro line, the line helps it sink. I'll fish a fluke weightless in anything up to 10ft and I've fished senkos in 30ft weightless, and it works :blue-biggrin:

Use a light mojo and make it long.
Use light line

Use natural colours in clean water

[August]

SeaBiscuit a Fluke was designed to be fished weightless, its actually a jerkbait.
Fish it on Fluoro line, the line helps it sink.

Jip - Fluoro I feel is a must on a weightless fluke.I fish 12lb, I have gone down to 8lb in very clear conditions,but dont do so often because weightless fluke usually sooner than later hooks a dog and I dont get over a lost fish, due to a line break, easily!!!

[crankystanley]

and if it gets really tough go down to 6 lb line a no. 1 mustad light hook and a fluke smaller than a junior fluke/really small senko or finesse worm...dont forget to put special sauces...another thing dont be scared to try different colours light and dark...and if that doesnt work make sure you got a good stock of ice cold frosties :blue-biggrin:

[TheCrow]

if you worry about line breaking try using Toray I was always worried about loosing fish on light line and often did but the toray is impressive and I have landed some dogs on 6lb lately biggest on 6lb toray so far is 4.88kgs and got a good no over 4 at goedetrowe. also had excellent results on the ztoo in Arkansas shiner in clear water rigged weightless or with weighted hook.

[crankystanley]

mr crow i didnt even know i had these ztoo lures you speak of...until a couple weeks ago i threw out a fluke and it wouldnt sink the hook was tooo light...i checked the packet and bingo ztoo floating...so i put on a mojo sinker but didnt have any luck...one thing to watch out for when using these lures...dont mix them with other plastics otherwise they melt and you will just find a heap of plastic.

[TheCrow]

its important not to mix the plasticts or even leave them out in the sun they melt , but thats the plan walk around Inanda dam and see how many swollen zoom flukes there are or see what happens when a fish swallows a fluke it swells inside. not to say that 3x plastic is any better for the fish just it is much more difficult to get off the hook so you have less chance of loosing it. but as for the Arkansas shiner ztoo if used correctly as a jerk bait it is deadly there is a huge waiting list already here at our shop with some guys taking every thing we put on the shelf. Have you seen the video on utube where a freind and myself went up to goedies with a video camera all my fish where landed on ztoos and that video is only a fraction of what we caught on the day ( u tube search big fish south africa ). Its a bait that needs to be worked (twitched) to look like a live fish. especially now that the water is up all over the country as it works best casting into reeds and under overhangs where it is less likley to hang up than any other soft plastic. hope this helps a bit as you might have guessed this is by far my favorite bait and been a big factor in my success over the past year.

[CrankbaitCarl]

I have been advocating 6lb Toray with a Arkansas shiner fluke for a long time and at last I found somebody that also believes in it. It is a natural baitfish colour. Clear water, dirty water any water when the fishing gets tough. I predominantly use Gambler because it is available and it has good action.