I don't know what you are doing wrong either...lol... my dad got out there at 9:00 am today and by 10:00 they had 2 already....i should probably call and find out how many more they got.... questions to consider might be... are you fishing it fast like a summertime bait? sometimes they like it slow... friend of mine went out two weeks ago with little 3 inch suspending Rapalas and caught over 20 (all in the 18-26 inch range) said they all hit on the pause...don't be afraid of a ten second pause, i think of it like this...sometimes it takes me a minute to decide if I really want to get up off the couch to get something out of the fridge too, and I don't even have to exert much energy so give them a chance to look at it....as far as dirty water goes, don't be afraid of it. if you go out and still cant catch fish, well then maybe dead baiting is for you....or if you are a bass fisherman, maybe just wait till summer and fish for bass and you will undoubtedly catch some pike with the usual summertime methods. or you can always blame the weather ha ha ha .....if it was cloudy for a week and then beautiful and sunny when you went you might think that that is a great thing...but in many ways that ain't so good, its like you are asleep and then someone turns on the light all of a sudden...it takes a while to get adjusted ....fish are the same...maybe go with someone who has some experience on the P.O. .... good luck

dad just got home...they caught 16 , biggest was just over 37 inches and about 15 lbs. 4-5 in the 28 inch range and the rest were the classic 22-24 inchers.... so, yeah...dont know what to tell you.... but these are two of the classic mid 80's -90's bass tourny anglers...you know...the good ol' boys who have forgotten more than most people will know (lol or so they say...really humble ..ha ha) ...one time I was fishin and wasn't catching as many fish and he turned and looked at me and said "you know why I am catching more fish than you? I said no, expecting some great insight and secret info to improve my fishing abilities and success rate ...he said to me " cuz I'm the best, then turned and made a cast and hooked another bass. if i switched to what he was using he would immediately switch...just to mess with you .... here is a tip though...if you find fish, stay on them.... good luck ....thats all teh info I can give ...and really I probably overstepped my bounds by reporting on their success....again old-school tourny mentality..... maybe try Couer d' lane

In my many trips to the PO this year I have been using nothing but Rapala XR8-X Raps which are suspending lures. On the retrieve I twitch the lure every little bit and let it pause, 90% of the time they hit it on the pause. Some of them attack it with great aggression while others make u think u snagged a rock. Shallow water and slow retrieval as the water temp is still quite cold has been the consistent pattern for me that has worked well. Good luck.

Depends on what you are looking for. If you want the big fish, so far they haven't been in the same place as all the 20" fish. Don't get me wrong there will be some 20" fish near the big ladies but so far its been like fishing 2 different species. They can be very sensitive to not only the changes in the weather but the changes in the water level as well. It can be awesome one day and off the next day up there. When the fishing gets tough, slow way down.... I mean WAY down. It isn't as much fun but it could mean the difference in going home skunked and catching a big fish. Keep at it. It takes a while to learn the sloughs and the river. They hold real well in some spots and not as great in others and you'll figure it out.

My father and I went out yesterday morning about 5 a.m. and fished for hours using everything we had from top water to deep water and nothing worked. About 10 a.m. when it warmed up a little more we put on a Rapala wildeye live crappie and the next three cast brought in 3 Pike between 22"-26". I cast that same lure out and first cast I had about a 22" inch Northern Pike. We let the Rapala live crappie sink to the bottom near the shore and slowly reeled it through the weeds and the pike struck every time. We caught all 4 pike within 5-10 minutes of putting on the lure.