Just got back from the longest two days of fishing I've ever had in my life! Finally got my father-in-law out to the CL for some winter striper fishing and it went something like this....

Day 1- Arrived early Tues. and put in despite the bitter cold temps and scattered snow showers. As we put in, my father-in-laws trailer snaps a leaf spring. We get the boat in, but the trailer is jacked! Nothing we could do at the time so we headed out to an area that produced in the past but it wasn't to be this time! My father-in-law never treated his gas, so we had a partially frozen line. We'd start the engine...go 50 yds....the engine would die....repeat process. Birds everywhere, along with shad, but never saw the stripers come up. Marked several schools and tried vertical jigging everyting under the sun without a single bite. Ended up the day by going into town, getting a new leaf spring, and fixing the trailer.

Day 2- (Wed) Getting a good nights rest at a local hotel, we awoke to bitter cold. Temps down in the low single digits. I pretty much knew we were screwed, but we had come so far to fish that we went for it anyway. Got to the ramp and the water was frozen, about 1/4 inch of ice! What do we do, we go anyways, forging ahead like Titanic waiting for the hull to burst and us to go down. We finally make it past the ice and back into our spot. Tons of birds, but I think their feet were frozen to the water, cause they weren't moving! Located some fish deep and jigged the morning away with no bites. Packed it up around 10:00am and headed to another area......pulled up....mud! Drove to another area........pulled up....mud! We are basicly screwed at this point, so we cut our loses and go fish the river below Wolf Creek dam. Pulled down to the river, and it was the highest I have ever seen it. We went for it anyways. Ended our trip to the CL for stripers with a whopping total of 3, 10" rainbow trout. I'm depressed.