Finding clear water to use bass lures in May

All over the country in May you will find a lot of green weeds that is plaguing our waters and makes it almost impossible to fish using lures. It is everywhere, well and it ruins most peoples lure fishing experience and encourages them to give up very easily. It is a combination of poor water quality with our water companies pumping sewage in our sea and the sun baking down on the low water shorelines creating this horrible green weed called May Rot. Yesterday was a prime example of this in our local estuary and on the open coast. We started fishing the ebb within the estuary with no luck and then decided to go to the open coast to see if it was the same out there.

May Rot that plagues our coastline:

Yesterday on the open coast it was the same on the beach, cast after cast brought in
tiny green weed clumps. There were some areas when we moved where it was clear for
a time but eventually, the weed started to clog up my braid and lures and it was once
again unfishable. I knew the fish were there as the conditions were spring tides and low
winds/swell. So, most people would have given up after their second venue was plagued by weed but we paused for a while, grabbed a sandwich, and had a good think about it all. I sat in my car thinking where could I go that might not have this horrible rot everywhere? The first answer was out in a boat which would have been the best solution to my problem but then that got me thinking. I wonder if the water in deeper water would be similar. Well, there is one way to find out and off I went driving out to an area of deeper water. As soon as I clambered down to the spot I knew it would be a much better spot to fish at. 

So, I arrived at the deep-water venue and there was a slight ripple in the water. The wind was on the light side, and it was warm. The water clarity was crystal clear and not a sight of any weed whatsoever. Perfect, and I clipped on the first lure of the day, a small top water that creates a nice flash in the water with its belly but is small enough to entice all sizes of fish.

"Splash" it went and i started working it. I have a few casts with nothing at all and then bang we had our first bass of the evening. I knew the conditions were good and there is plenty of fish in the sea but its just finding the right place to give yourself the best possible chance. 

At this point, I knew it would be a good evening because of the water clarity and the fact that the bass were busting them off the top in deep water. The tide at this point was almost High Tide and it was a huge 5.3m high because of it being a full moon recently. I kept going for 10mins but as it was getting very close to high tide I knew it would go quiet for an hour or so as there wasnt any movement in the tide until it started to push out. It went quiet for 20 minutes and it was now High Tide so I took off my topwater lure and thought as the water was so clear I would pop on a shallow diver that I knew would show up well in the water in a sandeel colour. 
Right under my feet on the first cast, this lovely bass jumped on. It must have been just hiding under the ledge by my feet. The first two bass were high 40 cm bass, but both went back straight away as I knew larger ones would be there at this point.

Again 30 mins past and as the tide started pushing out I decided to clip on one of our new weighted sandeels in 140mm 30g as I knew the flow and size of the tide were on my side. I am so glad I did but I was not expecting this next fish, but it made sense being in deeper water. It did get me now thinking about the type and colour of the lure.

I thought to myself do I want to continue to catch small pollock on this type of lure
and colour? Yes, I was catching but I was not out there for Pollock. I decided to make a bold switch and it turned out to be the decision of the month. As soon as this chartreuse lure with an orange belly hit the water in crystal clear water with a fading light and an ebbing tide it started to produce fish after fish, cast after cast bass and pollock for a full hour. I must have had 10-15 fish within that hour, and they were mostly decent fish around 50cm.

After all the chaos had slowed down I did take a moment to reflect and think logically
why this lure was so effective. Was it because it stood out in that clear water and was so bright? Was it the size and weight? I took one look at it belly and then glanced over at the shallow divers belly and realised that they had very similar-coloured bellies.

They certainly worked well last night, and it just goes to show, never give up. Always
think logically and when you get that colour, condition, and tide right you will have a
great day fishing. This very bright lure will be in my bag from now on and I will always remember this day using that lure and the orange belly. It caught me ten fish of decent size that evening and it is still going strong. It has a very soft body and I worried that it would get smashed by predators especially Pollock but it still going strong after that very busy hour last night.