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I mentioned two days ago that I used Sirius to set up daylight observations of Venus. I wrote: 
"You can use Sirius to select a good observing spot. Find out when Sirius is right on the meridian for your location [at night!]. Then find a spot where you can stand with Sirius nicely aligned with some foreground feature, like the top of a tree or a roofline. Mark that place on the ground with a couple of rocks, so that you can stand in exactly the same location in the next ten days or so in daylight. I just did this a few minutes ago."

Yesterday we had a big rain and wind storm topped off with the season's last dusting of snow. This morning it's clear and cold. I stepped outside a few minutes after 9:08 Local Mean Time (which was about 9:54 local zone time). I brought my binoculars but didn't need them at all. I planted my feet in the frozen footprints that I had made two days ago, looked up along the roofline that I had previously aligned with Sirius at meridian passage, and there it was: Venus in daylight. My neighbor had just stepped out to feed the chickens, and I convinced her to stand in that spot. She was looking too high at first, but when I told her to look right at the roof peak, she responded with the usual, "Oh wow! There it is!" A few minutes later I tried it from another spot in the backyard with no guide. It took a little longer, but once again I found it without binoculars.

If you can locate Venus with binoculars but not "naked eye", try that "walking" trick I've mentioned before. While looking through at Venus with binoculars, walk slowly until Venus is aligned with a tree limb or the top of a utility pole or something like that. This should be some object or structure at least 20 to 30 feet away so that your eyes will remain at "infinite" focus. Then lower the binoculars and look at the tree limb. Venus should now pop right out. 

Frank Reed