[Bushleague]

This year my home lake has been plagued with really dirty water. Everyone is having trouble catching fish, and it all up and down the lake you hear reports that people fishing from the bank are catching more than guys out in boats. That should have clued me in, but it took awhile for me to make the connection. Lately when the water goes super dirty I fish shallow... like really shallow, I drift down the shoreline throwing my hook right to the waterline and I've actually been doing pretty well with pike and walleye on days when nobody else I know is catching much. The fish I've been catching are choked right full of the minnows they've been gorging on in the shallows, contrary to the popular opinion that they just aren't biting. All of this makes sense to me that they would be more comfortable, feeding on the concentrated schools of minnows in less than 2 feet of water when the water is dirty. And probably have an easyer time finding and catching their meal than further out. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this?

A couple observations I've made so far, involving both walleye and pike.

The dirtyer the water the larger size of fish I can expect to find in real skinny water. To be honest I'm not catching much in the way of trophy fish, but some are fairly respectable, and on lots of these days everyone on the lake is happy to catch anything at all.

With the high water table we've got lots of flooded willows and driftwood along the shores. I think this cover is helping things, but the feed is always there regardless, so I think this will still hold true when the water levels are lower. Curious to find out.

To much chop and all bets are off. A brisk walleye chop that might make for a good day in deeper water (so long as its not chocolate milk dirty), seems to chase the fish out of the extreme shallows.