C-land striper report 12/8-9

[Lowerider]

Better late than never...

Finally got a chance to escape and chase ole linesides this past weekend. Weather was picture perfect for fishing. A little rain Sat AM and foggy all day long - it felt like 6AM all day. Did my usual research before heading down and just ended being more confused - past experience tells me the fish should be close to the heads of the creeks this time of year but the reports I kept reading were all about large schools on the main-lake or near the mouths of major creeks. I know its feast or famine when the fish school up like that so decided to dedicate the first morning to staring at the Lowrance before dropping any lines. I launch out of Indian and "searched" from the no-wake zone to the mouth without spotting anything that would make me want to stop and fish. Cruzed up teh channel past some of my favorite main-lake points and again nothing impressive. Cruzed over to the flats - same story. Said hell with it and ran to mouth of Beaver. As soon as I made the right the screen lit up. Circled back around with anticipation and set out the 10 rod spread. Pulled through some nice marks with no response, kept the poles out and pulled through the flat on the front-side of the first island on the right. Marked very little in 40ft or less of water until you get near the back side of the island and it drops from 20 to 80 ft real quick. Picked up a dink on the drop off. Saw some nice fish holding on the break so we did a circle and ran the length of the ledge and picked up another dink. Pulled up and ran just inside Otter back where the nice hump is and it looked like the Exxon Valdeez just sunk. Big oil slick and heavy stench? Thought for sure a boat just sunk? Thank god I wasn't smoking at the time... decided to hi-tale it out of there and ran back to mid-creek (Otter) and pulled one of my favorite walls with no luck. Told the old man, PRO V, about it and he mentioned hearing of some old underwater gas lines or something in the area. Someone really needs to check that out. Anywho, back to fishin... by this time we were a couple hours away from dark and decided to run back to Indian. Made it to the no wake zone when I noticed the birds having a ball near mouth of Brown and then saw why :-) tried to patiently idle to the madness but didn't make it in time. Marked about as much bait as I've ever seen - one giant blob from surface to 60ft. Continued to idle and mark and keep my eyes peeled and spotted the birds again. This time clear of the no-wake we headed down to the action. Now I already know I've spilled my guts with exactly where we were fishing but from here on out you'll have to just guess (shouldn't be hard). A large school had the bait traped in a large shallow flat pocket - a thing of beauty. Cautiously we trolling motored on over and made it in casting distance. My partner had a bucktail tied on, I had a spoon and we let em rip right in the middle of the maylay - NO TAKERS! After several more attempts decided top water was what they wanted so switched up to red-fins and spooks. Finally two takers (one on each) but that was it even though several casts were in the money. Tied on the new Gizz-4 (shallow) I just got in the mail and managed a dink on my first cast but followed up with several other casts with NO TAKERS. After that they went down. So three fish to show out of dozens of casts in the money. This isn't the first time this has happened to me working the jumps - you'd think it's easy money but it's really not. Felt humbled once again - makes me appreciate ole linesides even more. We called it a day and were pumped about tomorrow knowing where the fish were (my back-yard the whole time yet I'm running 20 miles to Otter??? oh well, the way it goes). Get out early Sunday to load up on some fresh bait. Hand picked a full tank of alewives and headed out. Ut-Oh - trolling motor decides it doesn't want to turn - I've got throttle but that **** thing won't turn. Bottom fishing it is. The fish and bait where were we left them but couldn't buy a bite bottom fishing. Then we saw em start to bust in the same place so I said hell with it, reeled in/cut the lines - grabbled the casting rods and trolled over to em. Repeated same process as day before but they didn't stay up near as long. Not sure if there's anything more frustrating and exhilerating at the same time as being in the right place at the right time but still can't catch a decent fish. In all honesty, the majority of the fish were small even for schoolies but a few nice explosions in the mix too. Moral of the story - yes, there will always be fish on the main-lake but there also where there supposed to be too - in the creeks AND just because their in the jumps doesn't mean there going to bite your plastic/metal/whatever lure. Net time I'm going to rig up Florida shiner style and a bobber three foot above my hook and just pitch bait at em - I'm not that **** proud. All in all marked a ton of fish, but they were only periodically feeding. I haven't been posting near as often this year, mainly because this was just my 4th time down to the lake all year, but hopefully this will help someone.

Happy Holidays to all the fishin.com crew

Scott

ps - A big thanks to Clayton Hollarand for hooking me up with premo bait Sat morning.

[mhall]

Cool post, I enjoyed reading it.

[JUSTINHALL]

Sorry to hear you did not do so well because I had a great weekend. I was east up by Waitsboro and Burnside. Last Thursday there must have been 500 birds feeding at the surface between the bridge and Waitsboro but by the time I got there they were gone. Saturday I put in late, because of the fog I did other things and started around 3:00. I put in at Burnside went around the island under the bridge and saw a few feeding so I stopped and second cast bam hooked a good size 37” long. I was using a Cumberland Pro skirted spinner with grub tail. Casted a few more times and hooked another about 10 minutes later. They were schooling up in different areas so I tried to use a red fin as I still have not caught one on a red fin no luck though. After about a ½ hr they stopped busting the surface other than a few here and there. I started using medium size shiners and planer boards and caught a few more with in the next two hours and then it was over.

Sunday was a different story all together; again I started late but at about 10:30 I put in at Burnside went under the bridge and caught one in the same spot that was feeding in a small school. There were no birds active they were all sitting on the break wall for Marina so I went over there for a while. I marked a lot of fish but could not get a bite with the bait down at 20 and 30 ft. The birds picked up and moved at about 12:00 so I gave them time to scope things out and ½ hr later I went to find them. Went past Waitsboro around the bend and there were the birds feeding in the middle of the lake. Threw a new top water bait X-Rap 13 and two casts in to it I had a fish on nice size as well 34-36”. The schools were only feeding for about 5 minutes every 10-15 minutes but each time I caught one on first or second cast. They did this on and off for 2 hrs and the last time they stayed up for about 15 minutes. All in all I caught 13 fish by myself in about 3 hrs all over 20 lbs on top water. I even caught a huge hybrid that if I would have known the state record was only 20.2 lbs I believe I could have had it. I let it go with the rest and only have a picture to prove it on my camera phone.

[PRO V LE]

Thank's for the report Justin, but I have just one thought. There are no hybrids in L Cumb. I have seen many Stripers with broken lines if this is what you go by. There are other way's to identify them also,fin ray count for one.
I will let APB help me out on this one.

[vmky]

Think I saw you out there Lowerider. We were close to the mouth of Beaver/Otter. We were in a maroon Nitro fish&ski modified to be a striper boat. I would like to meet some of you in person so if you see me stop and give a shout out. We blanked Sat. The water was a nasty brown so I figured the lake was turning over and chalked it up to that but after reading your post I guess I just gave up to early. Merry Christmas and Happy fishing to all!!

[LarryG]

last time i was out, tried everything, marked nice fish, but no surface activity, the schools were between indian and that creek before the dam, even tried the giz 4 on my riggers, hope to give it a try as soon aas this weather gets stable. that brown waterm sometimes is a sign of turn over.

[Lowerider]

Think I saw you out there Lowerider. We were close to the mouth of Beaver/Otter. We were in a maroon Nitro fish&ski modified to be a striper boat. I would like to meet some of you in person so if you see me stop and give a shout out. We blanked Sat. The water was a nasty brown so I figured the lake was turning over and chalked it up to that but after reading your post I guess I just gave up to early. Merry Christmas and Happy fishing to all!!

Yeah, I saw you - I think you were fishing more out in the middle and I was closer to the bank (I fish out of a skiff). Couldn't beleive we had the lake to ourselves - hardly anyone out besides the bass guys. I was blaming alot on the turn-over too....ha! Like I said we just lucked into a large school and even then it wasn't easy pickins for us.

[JUSTINHALL]

Are there no hybrids in Cumberland? What I caught was much taller in the mid section more shaped like a small mouth versus long and torpedo shaped. It had 3 broken lines on its side in the middle as well. I am relatively new at fishing this lake so maybe it was a striper if there are no hybrids.

VMKY,
I met you a few weeks ago outside of Beaver mouth I was fishing out of a Triton 220 with T-Top and you lended me a spoon. I still owe you a thanks as that moved me into to artificial baits and casting the top waters and it has been working great. Casting is much better than dragging them planers all day. I looked for you the following two weekends but I did not see you.

[mhall]

Are there no hybrids in Cumberland? What I caught was much taller in the mid section more shaped like a small mouth versus long and torpedo shaped. It had 3 broken lines on its side in the middle as well. I am relatively new at fishing this lake so maybe it was a striper if there are no hybrids.

VMKY,
I met you a few weeks ago outside of Beaver mouth I was fishing out of a Triton 220 with T-Top and you lended me a spoon. I still owe you a thanks as that moved me into to artificial baits and casting the top waters and it has been working great. Casting is much better than dragging them planers all day. I looked for you the following two weekends but I did not see you.

Sometimes ole linesides will look like that. There are no hybrids in Cumberland, KDFWR will tell you the same thing only true Rockfish.

[Lowerider]

Sorry to hear you did not do so well because I had a great weekend. I was east up by Waitsboro and Burnside. Last Thursday there must have been 500 birds feeding at the surface between the bridge and Waitsboro but by the time I got there they were gone. Saturday I put in late, because of the fog I did other things and started around 3:00. I put in at Burnside went around the island under the bridge and saw a few feeding so I stopped and second cast bam hooked a good size 37” long. I was using a Cumberland Pro skirted spinner with grub tail. Casted a few more times and hooked another about 10 minutes later. They were schooling up in different areas so I tried to use a red fin as I still have not caught one on a red fin no luck though. After about a ½ hr they stopped busting the surface other than a few here and there. I started using medium size shiners and planer boards and caught a few more with in the next two hours and then it was over.

Sunday was a different story all together; again I started late but at about 10:30 I put in at Burnside went under the bridge and caught one in the same spot that was feeding in a small school. There were no birds active they were all sitting on the break wall for Marina so I went over there for a while. I marked a lot of fish but could not get a bite with the bait down at 20 and 30 ft. The birds picked up and moved at about 12:00 so I gave them time to scope things out and ½ hr later I went to find them. Went past Waitsboro around the bend and there were the birds feeding in the middle of the lake. Threw a new top water bait X-Rap 13 and two casts in to it I had a fish on nice size as well 34-36”. The schools were only feeding for about 5 minutes every 10-15 minutes but each time I caught one on first or second cast. They did this on and off for 2 hrs and the last time they stayed up for about 15 minutes. All in all I caught 13 fish by myself in about 3 hrs all over 20 lbs on top water. I even caught a huge hybrid that if I would have known the state record was only 20.2 lbs I believe I could have had it. I let it go with the rest and only have a picture to prove it on my camera phone.

WOW!!!

I've never caught 13 fish over 20 pounds total (in the lake) casting artificals even after several years of spring time night casting so beleive me when I say you had an incredible day! I'm even more amazed by the location and time of year. I may have to "re-think" the north end of the lake which is traditionally known to be hot in the spring but not fall/winter. Nice job.

[JUSTINHALL]

I had been driving down to Beaver Creek and putting in but once I tried it up on this end they were hitting, so no need to drive 1 hr when I can drive 5 minutes. So far I have had good luck catching them on this end I dont know if it will change or not with weather but hopefully not, we will see tomorrow.
1 week ago I was trying to troll for walleyes with small crank baits and no walleye but as soon as it started raining the stripers were hamering the bait like crazy. No real big ones but alot of them they seemed to be chasing the bait but not takeing. I went to turn around once and when the line went loose one slammed it. After that i would troll and about every 5 minutes I would pop it in N and 2 out of 5 times a striper would smack it as soon as I popped in N but if not I just pop it back in Forward.
When I used to troll for walleye in Detroit river at night this would happen all night with white bass. As soon as someone would snag or catch a walley we would throw it in N and almost always bam a white bass would hit the lure but very rarely did they hit while in motion.

[fishincreek]

Thanks for the great reports guys!