Tried Everything, need advice

[suicidenemesis]

So today a friend and I were skunked. Had a few hits but nothing that actually took what we were throwing. The air temp was 60 with a windchill of about 55. The water temp was somewhere in the low 70's, we just got our cold front so the water temp hasn't changed much yet. We spent the day all over the water column, slow rolling spinners on or near the bottom, lipless cranks, buzzbaits, swimbaits, jointed rapalas, pitching jigs, rage tail shads, and anything else I could dig up from my tackle box. We got on a bunch of shad, but didn't even get hit there. the wind was about 10-15mph. We were on North Landing River. It is more like a long thin lake with a lot of creeks running into it than a major river. There is a main channel that has been dredged out to 15-20ft (depending on where you are), and the creeks average about 5-9 ft. There are a lot of sunken barges in some of the horseshoes, and there are a lot of submerged trees. However, my normal spots were no good because the water is down almost 2 ft from when I was out there two weeks ago. Any thoughts about where to find the fish would be great. My guess is that they are suspended along the main channel, but unfortunately my graph is not working so I have to guess using my flasher where the ledges are.

[Bassboss]

Welcome to the forum!

You said that you had a high pressure system come through yesterday (cold front)? Where the clouds really high? If so, it's high pressure, hence the cold front. Fishing a RARELY good on days like this, I always think of it as the fish kinda getting migraines. The only think I can get them on around now is on 3 - 4" senkos, 5-6" shaky heads, wacky rigs, and sometimes on a finesse jig with a pork trailer. Use 8lb mono or flouro (flouro is best) 12-14lb flouro/braid for the jigs. Fish them as slow as you can bare.

[Mac2]

This is a page of information a fishing buddy and my wife helped me to develop over the years. We’ve caught a lot of bass using the following techniques and presentations.

We fish with spinning outfits, usually 6 pound test mono.
I buy a pack of zoom speedworms in watermelon/red and clip off the tails at the narrow spot just in front of the flapper tail. This makes approximately a 4 inch lure that works exceptionally well. Not having internal salt, it sinks more slowly. This is key when you have submerged weeds, giving the bait much more exposure to the bass on the slow fall.

I rig the lure texposed on a 2/0 offset shank worm hook, weightless most often and often use a sidearm skipping cast.

This lure doesn't cost as much as a Senko, yet holds up under use much better. When one end wears out, I rig it in the other end....when that end goes, I save it for wacky rigging. I call the speedworm body in watermelon/red a zoomie, for brevity.

It casts like a bullet, and skips well under log, rock and dock.
I fish it most often in the following manner.....cast to likely cover/structure. Sometimes the fish prefer a "Here I am" skipping cast, at other times a quieter entry seems to work better. I let it fall with bail open, to the bottom, watching line at all times. I wait, initially, for 30 seconds, just letting it remain on bottom. After 30 seconds, gently take out the slack and lift it slowly off bottom about two feet to feel for fish....if nothing on, I tremor the bait by suddenly grabbing the rod handle harder, but trying not to move the rod tip.....this gives the lure a sudden little twitch at the top of the raise and will sometimes elicit a strike, if nothing hits, I let it re-fall and rest again for 20 seconds. Lifting slowly a second time...and pausing at the top of the raise, if nothing takes it this time, I reel in at a moderate pace and cast to another likely spot.

If done properly, this presentation will take one full minute per cast.

An alternate presentation.....developed and perfected by my wife. Using either a regular or skipping cast....she lets the zoomie fall to bottom and lets rest for 15 seconds, then takes one s l o w crank on the reel and lets rest again, with the line draped over her index finger for feel, and watching the line carefully.....after 15 seconds, another s l o w turning of the reel handle and another 15 second pause. She does this until the lure has travelled 8 to 10 feet across bottom, then reels in at a moderate to slow pace, and casts to another likely spot. It should be noted she uses a Zebco 33 reel ( just her personal preference ) so that when reeling s l o w l y, the lure doesn't go far with one revolution of the reel handle, so should you use a higher gear ratio, and want the same results you'll have to maybe take a half or quarter turn.

If weight is needed, I clip pieces of small finishing nails into 3/8 inch lengths and use one inserted in the skin of the lure about even with the hookpoint, but on the side of the lure to maintain a good horazontal fall.....the closer to the hookpoint, the tighter the wobble, the farther out to the side of the worm, the wider the wiggle on the fall. This is a side to side movement, kind of a rocking back and forth. Discovered totally by accident, but beneficial in that the glitter inside the worm body rocking side to side creates a lot of extra flash. Most often, we don't weight, but once in awhile the wind drifts the boat along and the touch of weight added gets the lure down deeper.

Fishing weeds.....bump and fall, bump and fall. I cast to the edge or inside pocket, letting the lure fall until it lodges in a weed. I lift slowly until I feel it bump another weed, then let fall again. I pause 10 seconds each time I lift to let the lure fall farther down in the weeds. Caught some really nice bass doing this along weedbed edges and pockets...... You may be surprised how thick the weeds can get and you can still work it down deep.

In lily pads and reeds, I use a 5 inch zoom lizard in watermelon/red exposed weightless. With the rod tip up, especially in pads it will crawl up on the pads and over the tops. When it comes to an open pocket, I let it sit on the edge of a pad with just the head showing and after 20 seconds or so, I tremor it twice with a little pause between before moving on.