I am new to these boards but I thought I would share my experience with you guys from 2-1-2104. So I was excited to get down to cedar creek lake early in the morning because I heard it was good fishing so I loaded up the boat and drove the two hours to go down there. The weather was going to be in mid 50s and I was stoked to catch some largemouth. As I approached the lake my worst fear came true... It was frozen solid... I drove my boat down to the first ramp by the dam area thinking that the ice was probably thin around that deep water, well I was completely wrong. I grabbed two large rocks and threw both about 15 ft in the air. When they landed on the ice I figured they would punch right through... Nope! The rocks broke into pieces!!! So no cedar for me. I decided to drive another hour to Laurel to do some smallie fishing. When I got there the lake looked promising. However after spending an entire day on the lake fishing it every way I know how to for smallies I didn't get a single bite. I drove around with my hummjnbird 798c di unit and graphed fished on the bottom and hugging structure. I fished those spots hard but still no luck. I threw everything from a jig to a worm to a tube. I threw swim baits, rattlebaits, jerkbaits... You name it I threw it! When I got back to the ramp at around 5:30 a tournament was wrapping up (around 15 boats I was told) and their winning weight 2.8 lbs!!! I about fell over!

Can anyone tell me how to fish Laurel because I along with a lot of other people got humbled that day! Any tips would be appreciated. I did fish clean clear water (no brown water) and I fished anywhere from 20-70ft all day.