Striper fishing at Cumberland

[aps71285]

Going down Friday night to catch bait and plan on either pulling boards or bottom fishing. Anyone got any recent reports or any tips on depth or area?

[Duayne]

Bait has been tough on the lower end. I hear it's tough mid lake as well but I do not have first hand knowledge on that. You can find some fish just about anywhere as of last weekend. I got my bites pulling boards. I know of some fish caught bottom fishing. One thing you can count on this time of year is change. If you get them close to the banks one day, you may have to try to find bites over open water the next. Or they may even change during the day as conditions change. I fished mid creek but I don't think it really matters much. The key is figuring out which fish want to bite where you are fishing.

[hooverfish]

Does anyone sell bait (shad or alewives) in the Somerset, Nancy, or Monticello area?
Any info appreciated.

[stripernut1]

Does anyone sell bait (shad or alewives) in the Somerset, Nancy, or Monticello area?
Any info appreciated.

no

[Duayne]

Does anyone sell bait (shad or alewives) in the Somerset, Nancy, or Monticello area?
Any info appreciated.

From what I understand, selling alewives is illegal as they are considered an invasive species.

[R19]

Bait shop local to me (Green River Lake) once told me the only way you can sell bait is if you have a permit. The seller can not go out and catch bait and sell it. They have to buy from a person who is registered with KDFW. This is done because KDFW inspects bait wholesalers to insure their bait is approved to sell in KY waters. This is control invasive species.

What a lot of people don't realize is it's also illegal to catch bait from one body of water and then take it to another and use it as bait. Let's say I go to a local creek and catch some bait and go to Lake Cumberland and use it, technically it is illegal for me to do that because none of the strems in my close proximity are part of the Cumberland watershed. Now if I am catching bait and the stream is connected to the Cumberland system then I am okay. I have never heard of anyone getting busted for that but it is a law/rule. I am about 50% sure this information is in the KY Fishing handbook.

[jerkbait1]

SO as not to hijack the direction of this thread totally, I have found bait real hard to catch this time of year on a full moon as it wont get set up under a light like it does on darker skies.
Also it has been about 3 weeks since I was down, so I would love to know what the temps are around Beaver and Mouth of Greasey to Caney. I hope to bass fish during the day and striper fish some at night if I cannot get bait. Anyone getting any at night on artificial yet? I know we were doing well this time last year, but this is a weird year. I will reciprocate any information with a status report this weekend after we get to run some banks. Thanks
Jerk!

[peter]

Sunday the temp around Jamestown/state dock was 60 degrees. Check the weather for fog. Both Sat and Sun the creek was fogged in requiring 7-8 mph all way to end of creek and it stayed foggy until 10:30 am EST both days. Because of fog and cold temps early I elected to wait until it was light out to head to the back of the creek and net thread-fins. Once the the fog got burned off and the sun hit the water the thread-fins were relatively easy to net. If you just see a couple flip on the surface "coast" in there and throw off the front of the boat. Sometimes the water will be barely swirling and there a ton in there. Don't be fooled by the bubbles from the bottom in the back of the creeks.

Some people don't like using thread-fins but they don't bother me at all. That is what the fish are eating. A real small hook like a No 2 and helps allow the bait to last longer on the hook I think. Think of "ball and chain" and "smashed head" with a bigger hook. Trolling 26' to surface the bait was lasting 30 minutes to an hour and longer and staying healthy in the live well.

Saw at least 6 instances of stripers thrashing bait on the bank and in open water which lasted maybe a minute each. Once right next to my boat but they were changing direction and moving so fast it was hard to gauge where to toss my bait. It was pretty cool to see the fish in action so close up..they were almost a blur they maneuvered so fast.

[BassHawk78]

gonna give it hell all day Saturday and will post any results. Hoping to catch bait but will be paying the man for shiners just in case.

[Duayne]

Stripers are schooled tight and moving fast. Hit em when the iron is hot if you can find them. I've had to search for them every day but it's like a Chinese fire drill when I do. I have not been able to find many fish willing to bite if they didn't have a tone of friends with them.

[jerkbait1]

Fished upper Caney early yesterday and got 2 keeper bass. I lm one sm. No stripers. Pulled arig on mainlake and only manged to break off 2 rigs. That night went back to caney and got 2 keeper stripers on buctails off mud points in the upper 2/3 of creek right before the rain set in . The fish are indeed packed up so when the bite its on its like, bam bam, nothing. Temps were 43 to 53 so watch you graph carefully.
And the hunt is back on.

[awfol]

We chased them from about 8am til dust friday. Caught 4 but only one nice keeper, the other three were shorts. Ended up giving up on pulling bait and started looking for schools dropping buck tails and spoons on them. They seemed to be moving really fast, blink and they were gone.