positives of cumberland

[motalot]

There are many positives to the draw down of Lake Cumberland/ First and foremost I plan on purchasing a gps and marking interesting points of interest. I might even video tape some of the structure.

I also plan on camping in spots where I like to fish. I will build structures while I am there.

I think Mother Nature will assist us in many ways. The upper end should develop good weed growth. When the lake is back to summer pool fish reproduction should be plentiful.

My personal opinion is I don't think they will hurt the striper too bad. My biggest fear is warm rains and plenty of it all at once. There is plenty of deep water not to totally eliminate stripers. The State is still stocking this lake and it should not hurt us too bad.

Now that they eliminated 25% of the water my luck should increase as well. Maybe once the lake stabalizes this might be a great time to fish as the draw down is probably slowing the bite down.

[Lowerider]

i hope you're right. The big stripes and walleye can be tempermental - the summer time "squeeze" will be tough. wasn't the trophy striper and walleye kill on norris related to a similar situation cumberland is going through a few years back? yes, there'll be stripes and eyes left - but will there be any big-uns'. one things for sure - spring time casting will be a whole hell of a lot easier with no trees to contend with.

[condusivecranker]

Heres something I haven't heard anyone say yet....
Obviously, our best hope is to get a AVERAGE and DRY summer, well historically speaking, our summer should be DRY. We are currently in El Nino, and the summers after an El Nino winter are generally dry, but are also generally very very hot. Remember 1998? That was the last time we had a El Nino summer, and that was a VERY HOT, and VERY DRY summer, but that was also a much more severe El Nino than this one. Therefore, we should have a dry summer.
But heres what I'm looking forward to...usually the Lake covers most of the whitewater runs below Cumberland Falls at summer pool, but this year, the run will completly exposed. This will allow for a huge surge of whitewater enthusiasts year-round (especailly me). This isnt the Ohio Navy crowd, but it's at least enought to give local outfitters a banner year.
Speaking of the Navy, they'll go elsewhere, leaving the lake, for the most part, rat, oops, I mean, jet ski free!

[CTFSHWHISKER]

i bet there will still be plenty of navy and pleasure boaters to go around,i wish i was a good fiberglass and prop repair man,that will be a booming business.

[Jbyrd]

i bet there will still be plenty of navy and pleasure boaters to go around,i wish i was a good fiberglass and prop repair man,that will be a booming business.

You know what I don't think the repairs will be as common . First of all 95% of the logs and trash that is on the lake comes from the banks after the lake raises in the spring. Also with the draw down there won't be that many humps and islands exposed that people don't know about or can see. Of course you always have the blind drunk who thinks the bank is the mouth of a creek . lol...........

[FISHUMUP]

You know this would be a good opportunity to get rid of a lot of that fire wood on the bank. We did a lot of this this fall on a house boat trip. Pulled up to shore and burned a big fire all night long. Pretty safe on all the rocks. Maybe someone should organize a few weekends and light up the Cumberland shore line for the astronaunts to see..........

[mhall]

Hopefully less drunken idiots...

[yogio]

As a previous whitewater fan myself...still am, just no time, don't forget about the lower narrows of the Rockcastle. This should be the first time they are available since the last time they drew down the lake for dam repairs 1974?). It will certainly be the first time they will be available for whitewater during warm weather months, in most of our own lifetimes. I know this is prob a capital offense on this board, but I think it would be pretty cool to let it go back to the original river for a few years...fix the dam...**** good... and then bring it back up. Can you imagine the fishing for the first few years after that, given the opportunity to gps landmarks, structures and get in there and coordinate structure building, like they did on a much smaller scale at cedar creek. The main channels can still be left untouched for the next generation stripers and the Ohio Navy battelships, but all the immediate shorelines would be renewed for decades to come, something never fathomed when the original dam was closed. Whitewater or just a float on flat water, there is nothing better than a canoe trip in a current...it would be pretty cool to lie down at the end of this life knowing that I was one of the very few to be able to float the original Cumberland river from the falls...or down the Southfork to the dam.

[bluegrasser]

Yogio: "there is nothing better than a canoe trip in a current...it would be pretty cool to lie down at the end of this life knowing that I was one of the very few to be able to float the original Cumberland river from the falls...or down the Southfork to the dam."

Hmmm... that reminds me of this movie where these guys wanted to do a canoe trip on a river before it was all dammed up.

Seems like something happened along the way and the trip didn't turn out so well.

Just kidding - I think it sounds like a cool idea actually.

[ToddLahey]

I am also looking forward to to have the oppurtunity to explore (gps photo) some areas that we hardley ever get to see as well as trying to continue to plant some structure. I think we will all be happy about this by the end of the summer.

[yogio]

"Squeal like a pig boy"! I actually have that movie on tape...the music was pretty good, but the book was better. I forget the author, but he only wrote I think, 1 other book and both would have been an unknown except for Burt Reynolds and company. The saddest part of that ordeal is, every college student in that general area that saw the movie...thought it would be cool to rent, steal, or borrow a Grumman and go down the Chatooga River and 120+ souls drowned in the class 5 whitewater, in the first year after Deliverence the movie came to market. That river, more so than the Cumberland...even though at certain levels, both can kick your a..

[apb]

If you guys want to GPS points, winter is the time to do it. They usually have the lake down 30 anyway. Plenty of structure to see at that level that would hold a bass or three most times of the year.

As far as the "Ohio Navy", I'm willing to bet that half of that navy is local KY folks and they won't be going anywhere.

Andrew