What did I do wrong?

[deep]

I went swimbaiting today. Water temperature was 40 degrees or so, air temp was mid to high fiftys. Yesterday was 70+ degrees, and the two days before that were in the sixtys.

I hit 5 points in the lake; two of these are adjacent to spawning coves where I caught big fish last year. I was shore-fishing, casting where water depth is around 30 feet, and bringing the lure uphill. I figured the fish might be holding at the drop-off, although there's no real abrupt "drop-off" that I found.

Anyway, I started at 11.30 am with a 8 inch mission fish. I fished it as slow as I could. I dragged it, and fished it like a jig. Snagged and lost it on the sixth cast (so much for its weedlessness!). Switched to a Mattlures 6" tournament series light trout; dragged it, hopped it, jigged it, and steady retrieved it. No luck. I snagged the Mattlures trout at least half a dozen times, and managed to unsnag it every time. (Thank you Matt, great little lure.) So I guess the places I fished weren't all that bad. All this took about 3.5 hours.

Switched to a wood Lunker Punker jr, searched the first two points, and then gave it up. When I started at midday, the wind was blowing at 20 mph with 35 mph gusts. It continued that way pretty much throughout. I left because I couldn't work the Punker properly in the wind.

The strange thing is I felt like what Ike calls being in the zone. I felt the Mattlures trout (which I fished the longest) working like it should, I casted into the sun, I casted into the wind (got three overruns to show for it), I hit stuff on retrieves almost every cast.

And at the end of the day, I only have a sore arm, and a lost mission fish. Blah.

[Sam]

Cold front shut them down???? 

[deep]

Ha ha, idk. If they were inside my casting range, active or not, I probably would have foul-hooked them. I combed the 5 points.

This weather sucks. The last 3 days were nice, and I was stuck at work. Looks like it's gonna be pretty cold the next week.

[J Francho]

Nothing.  Its called fishing. 

[JigMe]

still a bit cold bro.

[deep]

still a bit cold bro.

Probably. There was ice near the dam, and at the river-mouth (where the lake starts).

But then, I read of people catching bass on MS Slammers in the middle of winter.

EDIT: A funny note: Either the wind or the UVA-VT basketball game (we won.. woo hoo) kept all but one trout angler away from the lake. I struck up a conversation before I was leaving, and the guy asked me what I "hoped" to catch with that "huge" lunker punker. He got a nice limit of six 10" rainbows though.

[JigMe]

still a bit cold bro.

Probably. There was ice near the dam, and at the river-mouth (where the lake starts).

But then, I read of people catching bass on MS Slammers in the middle of winter.

EDIT: A funny note: Either the wind or the UVA-VT basketball game (we won.. woo hoo) kept all but one trout angler away from the lake. I struck up a conversation before I was leaving, and the guy asked me what I "hoped" to catch with that "huge" lunker punker. He got a nice limit of six 10" rainbows though.

Actually, I went trout fishing yesterday after work. My local lake was stocked with trout already, and I got my 2 fish limit under an hour.

[deep]

Update: Hit the same lake and the same points today with a 7" mission fish, matt's trout and a Spro BBZ 6" floater. Air temp was 55 F, water temp 40 F or so, slight breeze, and there should be thunderstorms tomorrow afternoon and on Monday.

On the second cast with the mission fish, I *foul-hooked* a 1.5 lb-er or so. (I modified the mission fish with a treble hook on top.)

It all went south from there. No bites and no folllows I could detect. Lost both soft baits by the end of the day.