Weekend of fishing

Both the wife and I took the Monday, May 17th off from work so we could spend some time together. We had a 3-day weekend of fishing. On Saturday we ventured out to the Castaic Lagoon with no luck. the water was super clear but nothing was to be had. We through out some nightcrawlers, Senkos, and Texas-rigged Roboworms but no bites at all. On Sunday we got to the upper lake at 6am and were on the waters with a rented boat. We cruised throw a few of the coves for a few hours on the fishing side of the lake. Nothing at all. We went to the other side of the lake to find the famous buoy line to see if we could find some stripe bass. Of course nothing. Seemed quiet because with all the other fishermen there, there wasn't much action at all. At 1pm, we called it a day.

On Monday morning, we headed over to Kenneth Hahn Lake to fish with the peoples. Wife got her first catfish there which was huge. I would guess it was about 5 lbs and caught with chicken liver. I caught a bluegill with a redworm that was about as big as my hand. Took a break for lunch, and then headed out to El Dorado. There we rangled out some more bluegills by the boat rental shack. The the interesting one was when I tried to drop shot a live nightcrawler. The hit was big so I thought it might have been a LMB bass, but it was just a large bluegill with a large size 1 hook in it's mouth. We move to the other side of the lake and the wife pulled in her fist stock trout that was about 12 inches on the chatreuse powerbait. There was another guy there pulling in trout every 5 minutes, so I asked him what his secret was. He was using the same color powerbait as us but I couldn't figure out what I was doing different. I was using 2 lb test and a brass treblehook. I wonder if I can drop shot with powerbait?

I'm starting to realize that I really don't have the skills necessary to fish for LMB. I really don't know how to work the lures, and am afraid I might end getting frustrated and buying tons of expensive equipment and pay for a guide to take me out to the lakes.