Cumberland Lake fishing question

[striperhunter10]

We're planning to fish at Grider Hill Marina 4/15 - 4/22. We have been there before and didn't do that well. Would like to know any info on water conditions, fish location, what's the "hot" bait and any other helpful hints that you may want to share. When we get back home, I'll post what the trip went like. Thanks in advance for the help.............

[gizzard shad]

If you are fishing at grinder hill I would try beaver and otter. I seemed do well when I head up in the heads of those creeks. Especially Beaver, if you are going to bass fish I would try spinner baits I seem do well with spinner baits and I also like bucktails with a spinner. The best bait I prefer is live bait (shad), but I do enjoy throwing a topwater bait or a bucktail when I trolling for stripers. Otter seems to have clear water than beaver, due to the rockey banks.

Hope this helps

[striperhunter10]

It's Saturday, 4-22-2011, and the fishing trip ended early. Bad weather chased us off the lake 3 days. Out of 5 guys we managed to catch 48 stripers with 2 of these being legal and 2 walleye.

We fished bait, boy were they hard to get, and caught quite a few fish. We also threw lures at night; slivers, deep diving red-fins and plastic swim baits with limited success.

Low water temps and bad weather caused most, if not all to the low catch rate.

I was told that this lake experienced a large winter kill of stripers.....and this something we didn't hear before. If so that explains alot about things ?????

[striperjoe]

Been here since Tuesday. Fished T-F and today. Bait is tough but it seems you will get one net with enough to fish the day. Caught just keepers T and F. Caught 1 keeper and a 32 inch today bottom fishing. Planers early week but with the debree and wind we bottom fished today. I'm happy with this after all the weather fronts in April. I have had just 20ft of water under my slip at Alligator #2 but have 58 ft today. The lake has the highest water level since they lowered it for Wolf Creek repair.
Have not heard a word of a winter striper kill and I have a lot of info down here.

[Duayne]

I think he's talking about the kills the last two summers..

You couldn't do any wrong Friday. Bait size didn't matter, I know of great success in the heads and I never left the no wake zone of Grider. Caught the 18" fish on boards so I pulled them in. Got the 22" fish on down lines with two super hard pull downs (HAD to be keepers) that didn't hook up. Bottom fished a point and got two keepers with a few short ones. Could have caught as many short ones as I wanted but you could tell by the pop on the bait they weren't keepers and I was pulling it away from them. May have been walleye or cats but I didn't leave it in front of them long enough to find out. After a couple, though, I was pretty sure they were small stripes.

Went out casting Thursday evening for a few hours. Didn't find any bait or fish up close but did find bait flipping out all over a point. Had a few blow ups on top and a swipe at the boat by a walleye at a sliver.

Didn't get on the water Saturday until 11 (waiting on friends to show) and it was quite the different story. The fish only seemed to want bigger baits until the afternoon. The problem is, I didn't have that many bigger baits.. Ha! I think Scott and Dave did well, but I think they were mixing gizzards into their baits. I do know I had a few gizzards on Friday and they were popping them almost as soon as they were in the water.

I didn't fish Sunday due to a flooded basement at home I had to run back to, but I had some friends that I know caught at least one striper on top water with probably a spook. Again, they were fishing way out away from the banks and drew it up.


The water looked great and the lake was as beautiful as ever. We did have to deal with debris in the slip while catching bait Friday morning but all in alll, I'll take it.