Nothing ruins the occasional fishing trip more than driving a long distance to your favorite spot, only to find out it's been raining for the last few weeks and the water is the color of chocolate milk! Many years ago, I was like most weekend anglers, and would immediately try to find another lake or river that might be a little clearer, or just turn around and go home. But I found over the last 20 years, that it isn't necessary to give up so quickly on muddy water.

  There are many times when a creek arm or a certain portion of the lake or river isn't as muddy, or there is a transition zone where it goes from muddy to stained, which can be a good area, but, even if there is no clearer water, there are many things you can do. Most game fish react the same way to muddy water, they go shallow and they move closer to structure. This could mean a lot of different types of structure, such as brush-piles, lay-downs, rocks, stump fields, pads on shallow flats, anything! When the bass are holding tight to cover, because of low visibility, the lure presentations sometimes need to be precise, such as when flipping a log or tree roots with a jig. Below are the 6 basic choices you should have rigged for fishing muddy waters.

  Plastic Worms:

  I know this sounds like a strange choice, but a lot of times when bass are holding real tight to cover, a larger, bulkier worm, with some rattle inserted, possibly with a paddle tail, worked real close in the cover, can work well. I use a black or a black/red combination in muddy water. I also use the new Big 7 inch Senko that is out now, and drop it right into heavier cover. I have been using the new Cut-Tail worm for this also.

  Vibrating Rattlers:

  These baits such as the Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap, Cotton Cordell Diamond Shad, or the Rattlin' Rapalas, are excellent choices for probing different depths of muddy water, and where muddy changes to stained. The noise and vibrations of these baits, along with a realistic shad shape, make these great baits for stained to muddy water.

  Crankbaits:

  I use a lot of the real fat bodied crankbaits in muddy water. I choose different baits with a wide wobble, and sometimes rattles in them. I usually stay with darker colors like red and copper in muddy water. These colors with a wide wobble are easier for bass to find.

  Spinnerbaits:

  The bass will be using their lateral line more in the muddy water, so a spinnerbait with a heavy pulse such as a Terminator night bait, with a black skirt, and Colorado blade, is a perfect choice. You could even add rattles to this bait, which I have had success with in the muddy rivers and lakes in the Northeast. I always use a single Colorado blade on the spinner baits in muddy water, but in stained, or warmer stained water, I do go to an Oklahoma Blade sometimes with good results. ZAP Custom Baits has 2 spinnerbaits that we have been using for these situations that work real well.

  Topwaters:

  These are my favorite baits to use in muddy water. There are so many baits that shallow, muddy water bass will hit! The buzzbait worked slowly around cover will draw tremendous strikes. We use a ZAP clacker type buzzbait for this. The walking type baits, such as a Zara Spook, and Fenwick walking baits, Jitterbugs, Crazy Crawlers, and a variety of other topwaters, including poppers with rattles, are excellent and exciting choices for muddy water bass. The bass will all be in water that is 1-4 feet deep, eliminating a lot of the water, making them easier to catch!

  Jigs:

  Jigs in Brown/Black or Blue/Black with a Zoom or Uncle Josh trailer, with some rattles, are an excellent choice to flip into lay downs, and shallow stump fields, and of course on docks. Terminator makes a new jig for these situations that we really like. Make repeated casts to give them a good look and provoke them.

  If you stick with these baits and methods the next time you run into muddy water, you will never be afraid to see it again. It will become a friend, as it has become to me. – Steve vonBrandt

  The last chapter in this saga ended at the end of my usual woes in the art of bow-hunting. Deer were seen with no shots taken. Stands were set in the wrong places. At least there were no misses or bad hits. Now we come to the rest of the 06 deer hunting story.

  To quickly sum it all for you, it sucked. Little deer movement during the day, full moon, freezing temperatures, rain and mud all added up to no deer for the freezer.

  You want details? Okay, you ask for it. Let’s start opening morning of the first Illinois gun season since all of the action took place that first season.

  Around 9:40 that first morning, I spotted a deer coming down the edge of a field up a slight hill to my left. I watched as it proceeded on down the edge of the field and I got ready for it to cross through the small patch of woods and appear out in front of me about sixty yards away. It had different plans. It did cut across but came out more than a hundred yards away. That would have been fine except it was trotting across the field and I couldn’t tell if it was doe or button buck from that distance.

  It offered me a nice butt shot as it stopped to look at my 4-wheeler parked around the corner of the field until it proceeded on across the field, across the road and into Death Valley.

  One of my hunting partners, Kenny or as we call him, Special K, was in his stand in an area where several ridges all terminate into a flat area we call Death Valley. Ten minutes after the deer crossed the road, I heard a shot.

  "Son-of-a-%&$#@! He got him!"

  We had decided to get together around 11:30 for lunch and since I was tired of hearing shots around me all morning I decided to wait about thirty minutes and go see if he needed any help dragging it out. I was hoping that he’d have it all field dressed before I got there. No need in wasting my gloves on his deer.

  As I crossed the fence and started toward him, I noticed a worried look on his face. "I bet it’s a button buck. If it is, time to have a little fun." I thought.

  He was just pulling off his dressing gloves, (timed that right. Yes!) when I walked up to him.

  "Man, I’m sorry. It’s a button buck" he said. "I called myself looking but…." I told you we call him Special K for a reason.

  "I know", I said. "That’s why I let it pass. Came within twenty yards of my blind and saw it was a button so I let it go." I said all of this with a look of displeasure on my face while shaking my head. I was laying it on.

  He stammered something else and was looking more flustered. I figured at this point he had had enough so I’d let him off the hook.

  "I’m just messing with you. It did come by me but I couldn’t tell what it was and never got a good shot. Button bucks are a casualty of hunting. You try not to take them but schmit happens."

  We dragged the little dude to the fence and chunked him over. "How should we get him across the ditch?" Kenny said. And with that I picked up the deer by all four legs, walked across the ditch and up the bank. "Like that" I said.

  "Damn. Make me feel real bad why don’t you." was his reply.

  Back at the truck for lunch we heard the 3-wheeler coming across the top of the hill. As it came around the corner of some trees, we could tell that Josh was dragging one out. It was a big doe. Alright! Two deer for the morning hunt. Not bad, but we should have seen more deer moving. After all the rut was on.

  The next day at lunch, Special K and I once again waited for Josh. He finally appeared dragging no deer but the smile he was trying to hide on his face told a different story.

  "I hope you guys like the taste of Crown Royal" he said when he pulled up.

  We were starting a new tradition this season. We had bought a bottle of Crown Royal and named it the "Buck Bottle". The only time it is brought out is when someone takes a nice buck. That evening, everyone at camp takes a shot as a way of celebrating.

  "Come on, I need some help" Josh said. We all mounted up and off we went.

  "Looks like the Buck Bottle gets opened tonight" I said as we approached the deer.

  It was a nice 9-pointer! But the way he was counting, it got up to fourteen or fifteen.

  Congratulatory handshakes, hugs and pats on the back were bestowed upon him.

  After field dressing it and dragging him to the truck, we took off to share the news with Tim who was hunting over in Sleepy Hollow. Why do we call it Sleepy Hollow you ask? Because Timbo does as much sleeping over there as he does hunting.

  He was waiting for us at the Permanent Stand with a deer on the ground. He had another button buck. That made two years in a row. We let him have it.

  "We’re never going to get any trophies around here with you only wanting to shoot buttons and small bucks." I told him.

  "Hey Kenny got a button yesterday" Timbo said.

  "Yeah, but mine was just little nubs starting to pop out of his head. Your’s has buttons that could mounted" Kenny replied.

  He did make a valid point. The buttons on his deer were just tiny bumps starting to emerge while Timbo’s had buttons at least half an inch long. It should have been easier to spot but early in the morning, during the heat of the moment, stuff happens. Oh well. Up to this time no one had seen any does except Josh.

  At the end of the first season, two button bucks, a doe and a 9-pointer had been taken. Not bad except one guy had filled both his tags while Tommy and I hadn’t gotten a shot. I did see a little 4-pointer while hunting in Josh’s stand. Seems he had the hot spot and we all tried to weasel in to it. I won out because he needed a ride home.

  It started to rain a few days before the second season opened. It had made things really muddy. This leads us up to me getting the truck stuck in the mud.

  Without going into a long story here, let’s just say it was a bitch. I had been shuttling the ATV’s from Tommy’s house over to the ranch and was bringing in the last one. I had been pulling up toward the old house and backing down through a gate, pulling up and unloading. This last time I backed up further than before so I could swing the trailer over to the side and out of the way. Bad idea!

  As I started forward, I felt the wheels spin on the wet grass. I already had the truck in 4-wheel drive but stopped and shifted into four-low. It was too late. The combination of the wet grass combined with the mud underneath did us in. We were stuck.

  I ended up riding the 4-wheeler over to Tommy’s to get help. He brought his truck over and yanked us out. Who says you can’t get a four-wheel drive truck stuck. Always an adventure!

  The only deer taken that weekend was by my nephew Chris. He wasn’t able to make it opening morning and arrived that evening. The next morning, Saturday, he couldn’t find the ground blind Tommy had set-up in some thickets at the bottom of a hill so after wondering around looking for it he headed to the ladderstand that he knew the location of.

  After getting in the stand well after light it wasn’t fifteen minutes later a little 6-pointer appeared. Two shots later, something brown and furry was on the ground.

  What luck! He deserved it. Though it wasn’t a big trophy we were are happy he got one. Chris hadn’t been able to hunt for several years since he was serving in the Army and had just gotten home from Iraq back in the spring while waiting discharge.

  How did I do? I should have just stayed stuck in the mud. Never saw a deer during the daylight hours in three days. I only had one more chance the following weekend during muzzleloader season to fill a tag.

  The next weekend was bitter cold, almost too cold. If it hadn’t have been for a couple of blankets I had, I would have given up.

  I did feel a little abandoned on Saturday morning when Timbo and Special K stayed in bed. Quitters! They did get out that afternoon though.

  Quitting had crossed my mind but I figured that if I was on stand once the sun came up and started to warm things up that I’d be set when the deer got up to start to feed because of the cold weather. Apparently they had different plans. But if there had been more eyes in the field we could have adjusted. As I said, quitters!

  That evening, Kenny had hunted in Tommy’s ground blind, the one Chris couldn’t find and Tommy took to his ladderstand. They decided to come in a little early, (quitters!) to warm up. After dropping their stuff in the garage Tommy headed to the house to take some medication he had forgotten and Kenny stepped around back to heed nature’s call. As he stepped around the back of the garage he glanced to his left and saw a doe standing there looking at him.

  "There’s no way she’s going to let me walk back inside, get my gun and come back out and get a shot" he said to himself. But that’s what he did. As he stepped around the corner he had his gun up and ready. She was still there in the same spot. One shot from his muzzleloader had her take off into the brush where she piled up dead. Talk about luck! She was a real nice doe. We estimated her age at 4 1/2 according to our tooth chart.

  The next morning was once again a cold miserable event. I packed my stuff into the truck feeling really letdown. Nine days of hunting with getting a shot. We all thought it a bit strange that we hadn’t seen groups of does like we had in years past. It was a strange but fun season but one I’ve grown accustom to. My only consolation is deer season is only seven months away and then I get to do it all again. I can’t wait! Until then, Jim Bob.