I have caught fish from a very muddy creek after a big rain. No idea why the fish were so aggressive, nor how they found my little lures.

I wonder why the Mud Hole was constantly muddy? If people fished for catfish there, it could have a big population of introduced bait goldfish. Also if it ever connected to the river, it could be full of something like buffalo that constantly stir the bottom yet are very difficult to catch on a hook.

I think there was a Bob Lusk story about a Texas guy that kept stocking bass in the large oxbow lake on his property. The bass barely grew and barely spawned, and the water was always muddy. They finally decided to drain the pond and took out thousands of pounds of trash fish. I think even Lusk was surprised at the carrying capacity of trash fish in that BOW.