This hits on an article I was going to post in a day or so "SPEED".

For those that don't know, after Steve sent me a message yesterday telling me how they did, I replied with the following information:
Did you leave wishing you had tried something?
Were you marking fish but no takers?
Were they suspended and did they go to the bottom?
Did you change speeds?
Try going across the winds?
Into the wind?
Make turnes to speed up the outside boards and slow the inner ones?
Did you try setbacks to put you almost on the bottom?
Did you move to find active fish?

The reason for my questions was to make him think. What was he missing? What could he have done differently? Did he try everything?

In the end I think you can see that he diagnosed his issues 100% correctly! So, the takeaway from all this? He was successful afterall. He knew exactly what he should be doing, and that his current setup couldn't get him to where he needed to be.

Traditionally, we pull cranks starting at 1.5mph speed over ground. He stated that the fastest he could get his boat was 1.4 but, because of wave surges, he was not getting consistant speed with the baits. He was not able to attempt faster speeds. The ONLY thing he could have done to aid himself would have been to go with the wind and make LAZY turns. This would have allowed his outside boards to be pulled at a faster clip and helped the baits dive or produce speed. Other than that, you did ALMOST everything right!

Based on our conversation this morning, two things I would caution on.
When asking someone what bait colors were hot, be careful. A large majority of people have a set number of colors based on what they have used in the past. They don't have a full stock or arsenal of colors at their disposal. Also, unless they tell you "Flicker minnow size 9" the bait they are catching fish on might have more to do with action than color!

Baitshop guys are NEVER right!!! They know where the fish WERE not were they are!
Don't be afraid of dirty water. The reason? When you find dirty water, it is very easy to find the clean water edge. The fish WILL be on that edge. It takes the guess work out of finding fish in a sea of emptyness!

Only other thing you could have done. switch over to running bottom bouncers and work with the speed that you had. Not saying it would have produced a bunch of fish but at least it would have allowed you to work within those confines or limitations.

I got an Ulterra I'll sell you!