Frustrated at my wits end

[bartoopuck]

Ok,

In the last 8-9 fishing trips I have landed 0 fish. I need some help.  I have tried spoons,crankbaits,buzz baits, worms, senkos, spinner baits.  i tried slow reeling,fast reeling, fishing deep, fishing shallow. everything. murky water,clear water, every combo of the above possible.....0 fish. I have read these forums thouroughly. what am i doing wrong?

Is there anyone who catches anything, in the northern virginia, specifically ashburn,sterling area, that would want to come out for a day and show me some things?

[MSPbass]

Wow man, sorry to hear that. I'd be trippin' too. Do you have a tackle shop in your area? Guys there are usually good for a couple tips on local waters.

I also found this post, on Beaverdam Creek Reservoir and Ashburn Village Lakes, from 2008, by doing a search... http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1208183317/9

[Blade-Runner]

This late winter/early spring bite is one of the toughest of the year man. Don't sweat it. Just keep after them.

I guess my only suggestion would be to slow down and fish high percentage (even if they seem too obvious to hold fish) areas. Find the warmest water you can and look for baitfish.

[Popeye]

I can really feel your pain!! The first SEVEN trips on my new float tube/pontube netted me ZERO bass while there were guys ALL around me catching fish EVERY trip!!! I eventually found that I was holding the tip of my rod at the wrong angle to "feel" the bass hit the senkos I was using. 

In your particular situation, I would recommend a jighead with a coffee colored tube. That has worked well for me in the waters here when they are on the colder side and the fish aren't biting all that well.

[D4u2s0t]

after ice out is a very tough time, I was killing them through the ice, been out about 5 times from shore last week (was still too much ice in parts to get the boat out) and in all that time in the water, I had one single bite.  Just a few short weeks till the water warms up, and the fish are biting everything that moves to stock up for the spawn.

[garland7]

Slow down man! I feel ya! Been there Done that! Concentrate more on the fishing vice catching aspect. It'll come around. Look at the seasonal pattern, lures, area, retrieve, and feel. Just relax, enjoy, and the catch will come.

[Sam]

The winter has not been kind to the waters in Virginia.

Temperatures lower than normal; then raising fast this past weekend; water stained to dirty. Tough conditions.

Bass heading to their spawning flats as the water temperature heads towards 65* and the Dogwoods get ready to bloom. Also check the full moon as they will be on their beds right after the full moon.

May I suggest something out of the box?

Get some live minnows and fish those under a bobber.

Bass and crappie should start hitting them.  Once you catch a few change over to a #5 silver Shad Rap.

The live bait will let you know that the bass are there and you will catch some which will satisfy your need to land a fish.

Then, follow up with the Shad Rap or whatever baits you want to throw.

If you are throwing plastics please consider a green pumpkin or black trick worm on a round ball head jig and fish it shaky head on the bottom.  Be patient with this presentation.

Good luck and let us know how you do. 

[bartoopuck]

thanks for all the posts. it just seems no matter what conditions, i have failed.  thanks for the suggestions.  I just assume i am doing something wrong in presentation,location and/or mechanics

[shimmy]

Hey, you should start checking out the posts in "southeast" location on this website. There are plenty of Northern VA fisherman here who talk about this issue more specifically. You'll get great answers in general. Keep in mind, slower is better right now, and if your not in the right location, your not gonna catch a thing regardless of what your using. Go finesses, go slow, and most importantly find, fish the places you know have fish.

[RichF]

I use a lot of lipless cranks in cold water and I fish them slow. I also use jerkbaits. When I fish them, I barely twitch them and then let it sit there for a good 10 to 15 seconds. I'll also throw a shakeyhead or I'll drag a dropshot with a finesse worm on it. Good Luck

[bear7625]

Are you the only one not catching fish? Try to find out how other fishermen are doing. Fishing right after iceout can be tough. You may also want to try down-sizing to smaller baits. A guy told me, sometimes when you think your fishing slow enough, you're still fishing to fast.

[BigEbass]

I have seen these posts on here before from other folks talking about many skunked days.  I live in Alabama, and we had a hard winter (relatively speaking anyway) - and the bite was tough, but I managed to only get skunked entirely 2 times - with some outings only catching 2-6 fish (which felt successful in that really cold weather).

I am relatively new to bass fishing and I will share with you my thoughts about when I feel in a rut so far.

Many on this site when talking about tough fishing conditions as such, they talk about baits - finding a bait that works, and of course a slow presentation.

But many times people fail to mention fishing location - when fishing gets tough for me personally - I tune out all the clutter of bait choice really - focus on location and proper presentation and fish good structure (points, humps, flats, creekbeds, etc) from top to bottom till I find a bite. It has worked for me so far pretty well, but I dont live in VA and never have experienced the same conditions so that just may be tough conditions?  Before I would pigeonhole that as a good excuse, I would certainly ask around - I have to believe that if I position my boat right, make the right cast and presentation, that the bass will have no choice but to take it. Got to maintain the confidence I would think - when I lose my confidence the aspects and details of proper fishing for me goes down the tube with haphazard choice of location, lack of attention to detail about presentation, boat position, staying alert for the smallest bite, etc...lack of confidence for me breeds worse performance.  Perhaps watch some fishing shows or read something and cook up an attack plan and go out there hopefully with more confidence.

Anyway, those are my humble thoughts, I am by NO means an expert so take that with a big fat grain of salt  ;D

Good luck!