Changing the Odds in High, Dirty Water Conditions
- By: Matthew Lanier
- on

On this trip, I was in Jacksonville facing both high water and dirty water. That can be a recipe for skunk stew, but with a good plan and a lure selection that puts the odds in your favor, you can still have tremendous success.
Check out the video below to see some catching action along with what structure to target, how to find it, and what adjustments I made to my lure to bring it all together.
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Essential Gear
- Reel: 2500 Series Spinning Reel
- Rod: 7’6″ Medium Action Spinning Rod
- Mainline: 10-lb Braid
- Leader: 20-lb Mono
- Z-Man Kicker CrabZ
- Battle Rattles
- Dr. Juice Saltwater Slam Formula
Learn how to use Battle Rattles by clicking here!
These two combos are perfect for inshore fishing:
➡️ Most Popular Combo: TFO Pro/Daiwa Fuego LT 2500D-XH
➡️ Premium Combo: Slot Machine Custom/Daiwa BG MQ 2500
Key Takeaways
- Start by locating oyster bars for likely spots. You can easily find these pre-trip using the oyster layer in the Smart Fishing Spots app.
- The combination and high and dirty water can make it challenging for fish to find your lure. Use lures that make a lot of disturbance to help them find it.
- Adding scent is critical in these conditions.
- For soft plastics, add a rattle to finish of the trifecta of disturbance, scent, and sound.
Find Oysters the Easy Way with the Smart Fishing Spots App!
Salt Strong Members enjoy access to our game-changing Smart Fishing Spots app. Available on your computer and your phone, it puts a ton of information at your fingertips to help you catch more fish in less time!
Smart Spots point out places that are likely to hold fish. It’s not just a spot map, though. Taking into consideration the season, tides, and more, it updates every 15 minutes to show what areas to target and how productive they should be. You can even look into the future to help plan ahead.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. We have A TON OF FEATURES built in:
- Hourly Strike Score feeding predictions
- Tides
- Weather predictions
- Weather radar with cell direction and lightning detection
- Seagrass and oyster layers
- 1-foot bottom contours
- Multiple satellite images and shaded relief
- Boat ramps and launch spots
- Public and private lands
- And much more!!!
We’re working hard to ensure that Smart Fishing Spots is the best fishing app available. We’re not done, though. Our talented development team is constantly finding new ways to improve the app and make it even more valuable for both planning your trip and making decisions once you’re out there.
Get access to this innovative technology and much, much more when you become a Salt Strong Member!
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STOP WASTING TIME ON THE WATER!
Do what the “SMART ANGLERS” are doing and join the Insider Club.
Here’s what you’ll receive today when you join:
- Weekly fishing reports and TRENDS revealing exactly where you should fish ever trip
- Weekly “spot dissection” videos that walk you through all the best spots in your area
- Exclusive fishing tips from the PROS you can’t find anywhere else
- Everything you need to start catching fish more consistently (regardless if you fish out of a boat, kayak, or land).

STOP WASTING TIME ON THE WATER!
Do what the “SMART ANGLERS” are doing and join the Insider Club.
Here’s what you’ll receive today when you join:
- Weekly fishing reports and TRENDS revealing exactly where you should fish every trip
- Weekly “spot dissection” videos that walk you through all the best spots in your area
- Exclusive fishing tips from the PROS you can’t find anywhere else
- Everything you need to start catching fish more consistently (regardless if you fish out of a boat, kayak, or land).
Well matt why do you think I have lived here in jax fl for almost 30 years now? Because the fishing is so good I was trying to figure out where in jax you were fishing when your camera started vibrating kinda weird but I also noticed your report was from today?! Wow usually it’s done after at least a couple days I went this past min night and early tues morning and man the fishing was tough only caught 1 big red on my zman spinnrrbait rigged with a knockin tail lure it’s a paddletail that has a rattle built into the small thin section just before the paddle a really great lure especially for here in jax when at least about 95 percent of the time my baits always have rattles and I use alot of scent unless it’s a gulp bait I use both a combo mixture of procure usually in the inshore scent combined with Dr juice I also tip my jig hooks and spinnerbaits with a small chunk about your pinky finger size of fishbites in shrimp scent so yea I use alot of scents and here in jax if you know anything about saltwater inshore fishing you know that oysters are always a very important structure to fish and should never be over looked but unfortunatly for Mr the last 3 times I have been out during the last couple weeks in August and first 2 in Sept the smart spots app hasn’t been working right for me everytime intried using it it told me I had to log in which is really weird because I NEVER log out because it’s on my phone why would i???!!! Plus when it does finally load it never shows me any info past 11 pm the same day looking at it never anything in the future like 12am and after it literally will not let me view anything in the following day which is frustrating especially when night fishing which I mostly due because wearing all those hot cloths like you coaches ALL do is not for me can’t take the heat and I’m not going to suffer just to have a little fun along with my peace that is most important to me while fishing plus I get tanned easily so it’s shirts off for me with plenty of good tanning sunscreen then in a couple hours I leave the heat to the ones that love it but like I said the app hasn’t worked for me in a while I also let the tech guys know at saltstrong and they don’t seem to know why either anyways I mostly know where everything is becausd I fish in the same areas all year round and have been for over 2 decades now but it would be nice to use the app especially if I wanted to visit some place different it is what it is thanks for the video and all you do
Sorry to hear that you are struggling with the app! Definitely reach out to tech support for help on that! Thanks for watching Steven!