Once again I've spent the winter reading all the fishing related material I can get my hands on. I've cleaned and sorted and organized and oiled and polished and greased just to keep my sanity .

A couple of the local ponds have enough open water to launch the boat and here we go again.

Air temp 42, water temp 39, water color-gin clear, wind 15/25 and I'm standing on my deck, freezing my fanny, chock full of angling knowledge gained from all that reading, and unable to attract the attention of a fish (ANY d**n FISH) in 8 hours of fishing.

I keep fishing logs and , my history shows that if the water temp isn't 50 degrees I should just find some more to read or clean and quit beating my brains out.

I know you can catch fish when the water is in the 30's, I've fooled a couple myself, but it's really difficult for me :'(.

Are my expectations too high?

Nitro I am in the same boat pretty much. I have never fished any water thats colder than 45, atleast for bass. My water is 39, temp outside lower to high 40's right now... but I went out 3 weeks ago when the water was 37 and the temp outside was 35. I was marking bait fish on 30 foot ledges but couldn't hook into anything.

I think its always worth a shot because if you don't practice you can't get better. Im going out this weekend in 40 degree weather.

I dont get it either bud. Ive been out in water like that and slayed them but more often than not I recieve the slaying. One memorable trip was when I caught one over four, a 5lb 6oz, and a 6lb 5oz that I had to break ice to get on the water for. The air temp was never much over freezing because it snowed most of the day.

yea i kno what you guys mean... it can be pretty frustrating in super cold water but u can catch em.. you just have to be deliberate and slow and the fish will follow

Here in Missouri, the air temp has been 40-80 degrees off and on for the past couple of weeks. Water temp is just getting into the 50s. The only way I've been able to catch 'em is on a Reacton Innovations Sweet Beaver 420 in watermelon red. The crawfish-simulating bait is worked slow around cover just off the first depth drop-off from the bank. Been catchin' 'em 2 or 3 casts in a row. They can't seem to resist it. 8-)