Terrible start to the year!

[NHBull]

I don't know if it is that water is still 49* and at all time high levels.....with no real sunshine in weeks, or me?

 No hits from any of the previously hot spots and have been throwing everything under the sun.

i have seen a couple LM on the river, but they were bairly moving.

 

it looks like spawn is weeks to a month behind normal.......Anyone else in the East experiencing the same and is this normal given the conditions?

 

  Thanks, Al

[Spankey]

It will come around. I'm probably more north than you and always go through this. Admittedly I've always had problems figuring out the spawn. Hope you have an easier time with it. They will show up they will be back. I'm sort of going through the same thing. What I'm catching is not even worth talking about. Good luck things will turn. 

[NYWayfarer]

It has been and continues to be cold, windy and rainy here. I checked the advanced forecast and next week looks dismal.

 

Guess I have to be happy for the few days over the past 3 weeks that I was able to get out fishing.

 

Memorial Day is coming and with it comes the consistent 70+ degree days of Spring I am used to.

[PECo]

Yeap, the water's still cold in Connecticut, too. Of course, smaller ponds are warmer and rivers are colder. Over the last three weeks, I've been seeing water temperatures from 55.5 to 64 degrees. I haven't seen any bedding activity. None at all. So, I'd call this pre-spawn.

 

So far, faster moving lures haven't worked. No topwater, no crankbaits, no spinnerbaits and no chatterbaits.

 

The lures that have worked are suspending jerkbaits up in the water column, and jigs, Texas-rigged soft plastics and wacky-rigged Senkos on the bottom. I'd bet that a Carolina rig would work, too. I'm not much of a jerkbaiter, so I've been sticking mostly with wacky-rigged Senkos on the bottom around cover. Yesterday, I caught a five pound, 11 ounce largemouth bass in four feet of murky, 57 degree water with the Senko:

 

 

I also caught my first ever jig fish with a jig with craw trailer hopped along the bottom. It was so much fun that I also caught my second. Black with blue flake seems to be the right color for jigs and Senkos.

 

Don't give up. Just fish the bottom really slowly.