Why you need to pay attention to water clarity this spring

Water clarity and stealth

Remember: Water clarity is at its best

More important now than any other time of year as the water tends to be at its clearest just as the fish are starting to move up in the water. They can see what’s in the water and also what’s out of it much easier in the spring than at any other time.

There are a number of factors that affect what they can see such as whether there is any colour in the water, is there any ripple on the surface, whereabouts in the water the fish is lying and what you are wearing camo-wise. Lets deal with the last point first, as it is the easiest. I think as anglers we have lost a little bit of the hunter spirit and a lot of the time we now camp and fish rather than hunt. A little more stealth would catch us all a lot more fish and that starts in the car park when you close your door.

A big bang will be heard and whilst they don’t know what it is, they do know it’s unnatural and they are put on their guard. Stomping up the bank doesn’t help and as for camo and concealment, I’ll pose this question: what colour is a heron? It certainly isn’t Realtree Hardwoods Green that’s for sure, and whilst we like greens because we blend in with the countryside, we’re more hiding from each other and the things that are looking at us from outside of the water, than those that are in it. To see us, fish have to look up. When they look up they see the sky, which to be fair in our wonderful country is usually grey, sometimes white, and very occasionally blue. Camo’s are fine when we are hiding ourselves against trees, but think about it. That idiot on the far bank floater fishing out in the open might with a white T-Shirt on not be as daft as you think! The idea behind camo and concealment principles is to match yourself to whatever is around you. If you are near trees, green is good, if you are sky-lining yourself, then it’s actually a hindrance.