RE: these conditions...what would YOU have done?
on days when you can't get the bite going and dont have a pattern, just start fishing fast. look at your map. search it for certain bass holding features. if i dont have a clue what the fish are doing, i'm chucking a spinnerbait or a buzzbait and then slowing down when i catch a fish or get a hit. fishing a worm slow on a day like that isn't going to boat you any fish. and by following the locals like you said, it shows you had no confidence in your presentation. 90% of fishing is half mental. don't get worried or psyched out. If you think what you're doing is wrong and you are ready to copy others, just sit down, pop open a gatorade, and scour your map for about 10 minutes. just cool off. then pick up your rod and keep plunking away.
you said your were fishing the channel. I dunno if that was right. i would have defintely been trying to fish points of land and points of weedbeds and stump fields. One thing you can do thts pretty high confidence is pitch jigs and stuff to visible cover. you're almost guaranteed a bite. Chuck, i think bass move around quite a bit, depending on what the lake has for cover. I mean, if you've got deep water with great cover nearby, the bass probably won't move alot. Bass move alot though. After wintering on extreme drop offs, they move out to main lake points and secondary points near spawning areas. Then they'll stage for a while and gradually move in to spawn. After that, its reverse. Some bass will disperse throughout the lake. in the great lakes, theres nomadic schools of smallmouth that just follow around baitfish schools when they're not spawning or wintering. Most of the time you'll find bass in less than 7 feet of water, given thers a low enough water temp and good cover. i guess this is as basic as i can put it without writing a darn book.
It's interesting you guys use rooster tails. i never use them on bass. i have a box of them, but i usually use them on pike and smallies in streams. I'd take a small spinnerbait over an inline anyday because of its weedless. I guess though you're giving the fish a little different look.
slayer