Cumberland Bass Report 1/31

Well, thanks again for the responses to my questions concerning fishing below the dam. My 10 year old son and I ended up fishing the still water on the lower end of Cumberland today and to my surprise had a great trip. We boated 8 smallmouth and 1 KY. The biggest 5 went around 21 lbs. He caught his biggest fish to date and I caught a pretty nice one as well. His was a 22" beauty at 5lb 4oz. My biggest was 4lb 14oz at a little over 21". We did cheat a little as we caught 5 on a fly and minnow. The other 4 came off shiners including his big one. He had a ball and was very excited with the big one. He had one more 4 lb class fish at the boat and it flipped off that is not included in the 9. We missed maybe 5 or 6 good bites so it was really a great day for me. I've never really fished C-Land much this time of the year. I've always gone to Dale and Norris but the size we saw today may make me rethink that.

All fish were on the lower end around 20-35ft deep. Here are some pics. I caught the most but as you can see in the pics, he had me on size and I couldn't be any happier.

Congrats on an awesome trip, esp for the youngster and the cool weather.

Great job. Nothing like taking the little ones and them catchin some good fish. Put a smile on you face and an even bigger smile on theirs.

Awesome trip. Nice fish. Its great to spend it with your son. Some of my fondest memories of my dad are from the time we spent fishing together.

A one,
on sharing a trip that you an your son will have for a lifetime. Hard to top a lifetime event in 2 life's .
Great report as well

Using a fly and minnow is not cheating. Nice fish.

Good to hear others don't think of a fly and minnow as cheating. That seems to be the only way I can catch them consistently when the water is this cold. Been fishing like that for years. I've tried many times even when I know I'm around fish to catch them on other baits but that minnow seems to be what they want. Also, I meant to mention this in my previous post, the water started at 44.1 and got up to around 46 when I left.

Is this just tipping a regular float and fly rig with a minnow?

Nitro, what I've done for years is fish the float and fly style craft hair jigs (1/16-1/8 oz) and tip them with a minnow and fish them just like a very slow falling jig. I've never had much luck fishing under the bobber and I like it this way better for a few reasons. 1) The best part of fishing to me is feeling the bite which I can't do when fishing the bobber. They pop this little jig just like they do with any jig. 2) you don't have the huge unwieldy rod. 3) when the fish are 25-35ft deep on the bottom like they were Saturday, I feel I would have been wasting my time floating a fly in 12 ft of water although I know some probably caught several doing just that. 4) finally, I fish mostly with my kids and they would really struggle trying the 9 ft rod for the fly fishing. I fish it on 6lb line. The downside is that it is a slow presentation and it takes time prodding 30 ft depths.

Super simple an effective on most any smallie lake in our area.

Thank you. I feel an itch coming on to try this out. I have tried the float and fly with little success. This seems a little more like my style of fishing. I really don't like starring at a bobber. Even when I pan fish I would rather cast at them.