It’s been a cold week for all the anglers fishing the Bassmaster Elite Series.  By looking at the weights these last few days, it’s obvious the weather has affected the fishing.  Thursday we launched out of Orowood at 9:30, just as the tide was starting to come in.  We made a short run to Holland Riverside Marina and caught a few small bass on spinnerbaits.  They were positioned on the deeper points right at the mouth of the marina.  We then went to another similar spot just up the main river.  It was a point with deep water and deep weed beds  8-10 feet, plus it was right next to a prime spawning location.  Brian caught a 5 pounder on a black and red jig.  We thought we were really on to something.  A half hour into the day, and we have 4 bass, including one about 5 pounds.  Well the remainder of the day was brutal.  In the next 7 hours we fish several spots from Franks Tract to Victoria Canal, and only catch 4 more bass, 2 of which were keepers (1-2 lbs).  Rock Slough looked very healthy though, lots of bait and birds.  We did catch a couple small stripers in there, and saw a couple big ones chasing bait around a shallow grass flat.  Friday Chris Zaldain and I launched at Rivers End Marina at 11 am.  We went to Coney Island and ran into quite a few of the Elite Series guys, including Greg Hackney, and Derek Remitz.  We fished for a few minutes, but didn’t want to get in the way, or catch any of the competitors bass, so then we just sat back and watched.  Just after we put our rods down, Kevin Van Dam flies around the corner and fishes a bank right in front of us.  I busted out the video camera and we film him for about 20 minutes, again, making sure to stay out of his way.  We didn’t even make a peep, the last thing I wanted to do was make him loose his concentration.  15 minutes into filming, he hooks one on what looked to be a red Lucky Craft BDS 3.  I thought he could only use Strike King?  The bass comes off right at the boat, but it doesn’t even shake him.  Two seconds later next cast, and back to fishing.  That guys casting is absolutely amazing, never seen anything like it!  After that, I drop Chris off on a friends boat, and I make the long run to Sugar Slough.  The tide was low and the sandbars were not easy to navigate around.  I finally get back there after having to idle across many sections.  I spend a couple hours flipping jigs and tubes around rock and wood and catch a 3.5 pound bass and a 5 pound catfish.  The water was dirty and it was raining quite hard so black/blue was the obvious choice.  Saturday we had post frontal conditions, bluebird skies, and 10-20 mph north wind.  We launched out of Big Break Marina, and spent the whole day fishing Big Break and Sherman Island.  The guys I went out with were interested in learning to navigate and fish around that area.  The bite was extremely tough.  Fishing in one of the marinas near the Antioch Bridge, I hook a 2 pounder flipping a Beaver but loose it at the boat.  We had a couple other missed bites, but that was it.