I went this past weekend. Fished Sunday late in the afternoon til dark:total of two hours,no bites. My brother-in-law fished all day using fnfly and jigs and lots of other lures and maybe had one bite but no fish. Talked to some guys at the ramp that evening who had 8 fish, one being a 5.2 smallie. They also had some 3-4lb smallies and a few spots. Their bait-live shiners on split shot rigs.
On monday I fished from 9 til 6 and had one nice 2 lb.11oz spot on a carolina rigged seinko at 25ft in a cove off the main lake-lower end. Had on a nice smallie on the fly who went on a freight train run and snapped my 6 lb. line at the jig eye. Had one other pull down and boated a beautiful 7inch bluegill. He had my heart going fast for a bit! Back at the ramp that evening I had to endure two nice guys tell me their tale of woe. They had a bad day-two 4 lb. smallmouth, a couple of 2's, a 3,a few spots,and lost another smallmouth that would go 4. I was crying for 'em! Their bait - live shiners. Get the picture? My opinion, you can catch smallies on several things at Cumberland right now but the only guys with size and numbers that I talked to used shiners. The water was 46-47. Pretty cold for artificials. Please let us know how you do.