The private hole had a lot of cormorants floating around on it this morning when I arrived. My first job was to unload my neighbor’s used bricks into the ruts leading down to the hole. I had a pretty good pile of them in the back of the truck but I needed a few more to do the job properly. All in all it lowered the getting stuck quotient.  All but one of the cormorants had left by the time I shoved the boat off from the bank. I tried the baits you read about for cold water fishing, namely jerk baits, a jig, and a shaky head but nothing  was happening. I branched out to a deeper diving crankbait and a shallower one that I caught some on last trip, still nothing. Everything was worked slow a molasses.Figuring the fish might be in the middle of the hole, I even trolled across and back. I felt the bait hit some fish and climb over them but nothing bit. There was some disturbed dirt on the bank and I went over to investigate. Lying by the dirt was some droppings with scales in it. The otter was having some luck with the fish. Not me. I quit about 1:30 and took a double zero. No bites and no fish.