lake Cumberland fishing report for Feb 2, 2012. The mild winter so far has made for some great days on the water. The water temp is still close to 50 degrees on the lake and the water color on the lower end of the lake is great. The lake is about ten feet above 680 feet above sea level but we all are use to the different water depths this time of year. The striper fishing on the lake has been very good for numbers all winter. The most active fish are in the very head of the creeks in ten feet of water or less. The fish will be there most days for a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours in the evening. You can pull weightless planers, bottom fish, or cast bucktails whichever method you like the best. After low light conditions the fish can be caught in 30 to 80 feet of water suspended 15 to 30 feet. Either pulling planers, bottom fishing, or pulling u-rigs is usually the method then. The crappie fishing has also been better than normal becasue the water has not forced them real deep like normal. The only down side for fishing I have seen is the floating fly method has not been producing for the people I have talked to but they are getting smallmouth on shad and shiners fished under bobbers 5 to 15 feet deep off secondary points on teh main lake.
I have fished the river more than the lake lately with great success on walleye and saugers. We are catching both on crappie minnows and lead head jigs fished close to the bottom. The river stripers have been hard to get hooked lately mainly becasue the only skipjacks I can catch are 15 to 20 inches a little big for winter fish. The browns and rainbow have backed off the boils but can still be caught drifting down river. Good luck and hope to see you on the water. The cabin fever special is almost over and I only have a few days in the week left.
lance Sasser