Rob and I hit CC around 11 today. Launched at Lone Star and went to Spillway. Marked fish suspended at 20-25fow but no takers. Looked at Merimack and St. Annes. Marked a few but no takers. Tried the dam, long ridge and back to spillway. Dead sticking with small slabs and fly or thump buddy above - Nothing. We struck out. Was a pleasant day on the lake. Water is stained and 51 degrees.

Sorry you guys struck out. I am still catching fish on those structures after locating fish hugging the bottom in 12 to 18 fow. I only use Mepps #4 Aglia plain silver spinners, so don't know if slabs or soft plastics would work. The fish are quite finicky and move around frequently. I can catch only 2 to 5 after I locate them. Then they move around on the structure, and I have to re-find them. When I say finicky, I mean I have to try various actions to get them to bite. The most consistent method right now is from the bottom abruptly start the spinner up at a 30 to 45 degree angle then continue moving it as slowly as you can and still make it spin. I reel it about 3 turns on my 7.1 to 1 reel and, if no bite, release the reel and let it free fall back to the bottom. When they strike, it is usually within the 3 turns of the reel, but I catch a few when the spinner is falling back to the bottom. Sometimes I use the rod to drag the spinner rather than reeling. Sometimes it works better to pull to the side with the rod as I reel, and at other times to point rod right toward the line and reel.

I'm catching 8 to 10 fish per hour this way - mostly magnum whites and legal and short hybrids. Best day last week was 42 in half a day. Yesterday afternoon it was 16 in 2 hours. It is absolutely imperative to locate the fish down on the bottom first to catch fish this way. I'll try to get a screen shot of the bottom pattern I am looking for and post it here. Water temp now is 49 to 50 degrees.

Thanks Dennis for the info. We tried looking shallow but when we got below 20 ft. the screen went blank. A few times we did see some hugging the bottom but didn't stop to fish for them. We will know better next time.

I gave it a try late last week, including the Mepps technique, but had the same result as Steve. Gonna try again soon.