Ask The Pros

When a lake gets muddy does the mud run the whole depth of the water you are fishing?

Question:
When a lake gets muddy does the mud run the whole depth of the water you are fishing.   ex. if you are fishing in 20 ft of water does the water stay stained the whole 20 ft or is the stain only 10 or 12 ft down? -
Answer:
When muddy water first flows into a lake, the muddy part is usually on top, filling the water column like the chocolate swirl in vanilla ice cream. At first, the mud doesn't fill the entire water column, but fish can't tell it. The mud effectively blocks sunlight from  penetrating to the bottom, so the entire column of water might as well be muddy. Over a few days, the mud begins to mix and settle into the rest of the water and then the reverse process happens....

Mud was stirred up, flowed into the water, sat still and begins to settle. It settles from the top down. So, water clears from the top to the bottom as silty soil particles get a chance to settle out. After all, dirt is heavier than water and if the water was clear before the mud event, it is likely to be clear again, after everything settles down. -Bob Lusk, Editor POND BOSS Magazine and Fisheries Biologist