Game the game fish by casting your line on muddy shores

Game fish are predators. Like most predators, they look for conditions that give them an advantage over their prey.

So how can you get the advantage on them? Beat them at their own game.

Predator fish enjoy mud lines along Colorado reservoirs where light penetration and water clarity can give them a sensory advantage. They look for ambush points close to where baitfish tend to gather and edges they can use to trap them. That’s where you, in turn, can trap the predators.

Just fishing muddy shorelines, however, can be frustrating. You need to understand how they work first.

Mud lines are typically formed by wave action against the shoreline caused by wind or boating activity, or both. The activity stirs up the dirt, which forms muddy shorelines. Due to falling water in Colorado reservoirs, more dirt and sediment tend to get exposed at this time of year. As these muddy areas form, the mud tends to suspend in the upper water column at first, then gradually works deeper.

The key to fishing in these conditions is to look for deeper water where the mud forms a definitive line and still has clear water below it, said Ronny Castiglioni, a guide with Fishful Thinker. It’s even better if there are isolated areas of muddy water as opposed to an entire shoreline that is muddy, he added.

In the reservoirs Castiglioni fishes, these mud lines tend to start forming around mid-morning as the boating activity picks up and last into the afternoon, making for real “bankers’ hours” fishing (merely a reference to muddy banks, no pun intended). Once an area becomes muddy from top to bottom, fishing can become very difficult and you probably need to move to a new area.

When fishing mud line areas, Castiglioni tends to throw reaction style baits. For Boyd Reservoir, he likes to target largemouth bass with spinnerbaits, chatter baits and crank baits. On Horsetooth Reservoir, where smallmouth bass and walleyes are the predominant species, he likes to cast a curly-tail grub. The grub is fished on a lead-head jig. You need to keep it moving so the tail is constantly pulsating. The lure has to give off some form of vibration to help the fish locate it, Castiglioni said.

Once you understand fishing mud lines, you can apply these techniques to a body of water near you. For those of you with limited fishing time, this can give you “windows of opportunity” for increased success.