My brother and I want to try Lake Cumberland this Spring for Smallmouth bass and stripers – Lake Cumberland has been on our “bucket list” for a while, but we’ve put it off every year for other destinations where we have more experience. I know it’s a great fishery, but it’s such a large lake with fluctuating water levels/temps, I guess I’ve always been afraid to failJ But we’re going to try it on for size this year!


We’ve been talking about this trip for a while and have different theories about where to concentrate our effort. So I was hoping some of you who are familiar with the lake and how the US Corps of Engineers operates the dam/sluices in Spring could settle some of those issues for us.


We plan on making the trip in early May, but want to hit the lake when water temps/levels in the tributaries are optimal. Since the lake is a reservoir, I‘m thinking the headwaters upstream warm up earlier than tributaries in the southern portion of the Lake near Wolf Creek Dam. I’m thinking we should camp at Fall Creek and work the north end of the lake, but my brother wants to camp at Kendall and work the south end of the Lake. My brother thinks the southern end of the Lake holds larger fish. He thinks they concentrate in deep water during the summer near the dam, and use the southern tributaries for their spawning/spring feeding. You are probably all laughing at this post, but that’s ok, I’m laughing along with you.

If you had a choice, which end of the lake would you concentrate on in early May?