What is a mudline?

[Mckoz]

Another rain day so I guess I'll try an educate myself a little today. What exactly is a mudline - how do I locate this and why do walleyes prefer this area?

Thanks
Mike

[Hunter]

A mudline occurs when wind pushes the water against the shoreline. Makes the water closest to shore a brown color turning a grey, then clean as you get away from shore. The grey water holds alot of fish both predators and prey, eyes seem to know this is a good place to hunt, the brown water will push all the smaller fish into the grey. The eyes feel safe here, and will go in shallow 3-5 feet if the water is grey even during midday, light penetration is lower. We look for these soon as we come out on St.claire. People tend to run out to the hole on this lake, passing great fishing on the way. Try a mudline, they produce.

[cisco]

Just add a note to Hunter's fine description -- very often the phenomena which produce mudlines also produce thermobars. Unlike a thermocline, a thermobar is vertical, often top to bottom. Thus you have a temp change inside and outside the mudline itself. The temp change creates a "trap" for various critters from zooplanckton to phytoplankton, etc. Predators of the little stuff move in, then predators of those predators follow. In short, a bonanza of activity. On Lake Michigan the so-called "scum line" is the same thermobar situation -- with its own bio activity.

[RANGER]

Just to add to the previous posts - Mudlines aren't restricted to lakes and wave action. They occur in rivers and creeks as well. Basically the same principle, though. If one body of water flows into another and one is muddy, for whatever reason, it creates a Mudline.

Where streams, creeks and rivers flow into lakes, or some other estuary, you can have Mudlines where the inflow is muddied from a recent rain but the lake was unaffected.

All of them are fish nagnets and worth moving into to fish them.


RANGER


"KEEP YOUR LINES WET, YOUR POWDER DRY and THE BEER COLD!"

[GORD]

Mudlines.... Many things have been written about this. Some right. Some wrong. ALL IS SPECULATION !!! Who can anyone say what happens in inside a mud slurry? My theory... the waves stir up the mud. the critters that live near shore don't like it and are forced out to clean water ( where the walleye are waiting). You cast into the muddy water. You lure suddenly comes out of the cloud and is attacked by the waiting walleye. Don't believe what you read. Use common sense.

[cisco]

To detect a thermobar, a thermometer works much better than "common sense."

[Chad]

Another idea is that the little critters living in the soil which is being eroded are being washed out to shore in the mud.

Yet another idea. The little critters may use the mud as an area to hide in. Kind of like weeds.

Mud lines are transition areas where clear water meets cloudy water. It can also be an area where a clay bottom meets a hard bottom. Again a transition area. Whenever you have transition or funnel areas there is boud to be some action. Just like a busy intersection. Always seems to be an accident once in a while.

[Gumbo]

Check the Pro page, as some have written articles on fishing mudlines. There's a link to it at the top of this page. And by the way, The Pro Page is a good spot to spend some time on a rainy day.

Good fishing.

[Homer]

My $0.02 on why fish like mudlines. Fish often relate to "edges", areas where there is a sharp change between two types of conditions. These edges could be a drop-off, weedline, hard/soft bottom, etc. The mudline is just another edge, between clean and dirty water.

I don't have an answer to the follow-up question, "Why do fish like edges?".

[Mckoz]

Thanks for all the info and theories - appreciate any input as well as the reminder about the pro page. Spent most of yesterday afternoon on the lake in a rainsuit with an underwater camera just snooping around. Really gives you a lot more confidence in your locators when you can verify what it is you are marking.

Checked around the rivers for "transitions, etc." the water is still very cold (54) and extremely clear. Most of the fish are between 20 and 30 feet right now - found northerns in the middle of nowhere - 25' laying flat on the bottom and would not move until nudged with the camera.

Mike

[FJH1]

Biologically speaking, edges are the zone in which the highest concentrations of critters congregate. Animals like to use edges for many reasons including cover. Take a walk through the woods sometime, you will find that the highest concentartions of animals (birds, deer, fox...) will be observed in the area where trees meet the field, not in the middle of the forest. I'm sure a mudline would fall into the "edge" catagory.

Best Regards,

FJH