How hard should it be?

Clickbait title...

I have had some trouble finding fish this Winter in water where I would typically find them on other lakes in prior years. Normally I am able to get bit on the shorelines with the most wind/rock/sunshine/deepwater access. I can’t find em!
For some of you guys that fish lakes with little/sporadic rock, do you tend to only have confidence in areas with a hard bottom or would you fish the edges/points of the tree lines (soft mushy bottom). For some reason I have a mental block against the areas where the bottom is mushy. Should I be looking for bait balls first?

Starting around Christmas I'm looking for delicious Schweddy balls.

Areas where the bottom is mushy do not warm very well; but find a small section of rock in that area with no other rocks around and the fish will be there. It is not so much as it is warmer from the sun; but it is an irregular feature in that area. Fishing the irregular feature in any area is a must. Look for them all the time on the contour line that the fish are holding on all over the lake during that particular day.

There are many other irregular features that also hold fish and it is not just in the winter months. It is becoming easier for fisherman to find them with today's electronics. Catching fish is all about staying on contour at a perticular depth and finding the most irregular feature that it has to offer. This may be:
- A steep slop more so then the area around it.
- A ledge
- A rocky section
- A rock hump
- Rock of a different size and make up
- Where the muck turns to pea gravel
- Heavily wooded section
- Larger timber
- brushed out dock
- drainage ditch providing funnel points
- A gouge in the side of a point
- A protrusion off the shoreline
- Dead grass pods.
- bushes that extend to deep water farther than the other areas around it.

Don't count out areas where the bottom is soft, especially if there is quality cover in or around the area. If you're referring to current time table of this winter, it's pretty late in the season. Maybe you should focus your efforts in shallower water.