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I was debating on which lake to fish this weekend for smallmouths...........Dale Hollow or Lake Cumberland. I heard that Cumberland was producing several smallmouths........can anyone help me out on deciding where to go this weekend and what to try??? Thanks
I went this past weekend. Fished Sunday late in the afternoon til dark:total of two hours,no bites. My brother-in-law fished all day using fnfly and jigs and lots of other lures and maybe had one bite but no fish. Talked to some guys at the ramp that evening who had 8 fish, one being a 5.2 smallie. They also had some 3-4lb smallies and a few spots. Their bait-live shiners on split shot rigs.
On monday I fished from 9 til 6 and had one nice 2 lb.11oz spot on a carolina rigged seinko at 25ft in a cove off the main lake-lower end. Had on a nice smallie on the fly who went on a freight train run and snapped my 6 lb. line at the jig eye. Had one other pull down and boated a beautiful 7inch bluegill. He had my heart going fast for a bit! Back at the ramp that evening I had to endure two nice guys tell me their tale of woe. They had a bad day-two 4 lb. smallmouth, a couple of 2's, a 3,a few spots,and lost another smallmouth that would go 4. I was crying for 'em! Their bait - live shiners. Get the picture? My opinion, you can catch smallies on several things at Cumberland right now but the only guys with size and numbers that I talked to used shiners. The water was 46-47. Pretty cold for artificials. Please let us know how you do.
Fished last saturday in the snow and all. We boated about 20 or so fish with only 4 of those being keepers. 2 smallmouth 4-41/2, 1 just keeper largemouth, and one keeper spot. Lots of short fish. All of our fish came on the FNF.
Fished yesterday in the bright blue bird skies, not the best day to be on the water for the FNF. We managed to get 7 bites total.
2 keeper smallmouth (1 about 5, and the other 31/2), and 2 keeper spots. All fish came on the FNF.
10 to 11 pounds seems to be the norm right now on cumberland on bad days and us trying to find new places to throw this thing.
I would stay home if I was you! You can't catch any smallies on either lake!!!!
A few buddies and myself are going down to Cumberland this Sunday to put some brown fish in the boat. With the warm rains that we have had this week, I think that there will be some differences in water temp from main lake to the creeks.
We will have both shinners and FNF. January has been good to me the past couple of years so I hope my luck stays the same.
My advice is to keep moving till you get bit. Start on channel bluffs up in a creek and keep moving towards main lake till you find the right water color and temp they want. Once you find one you should be able to ketch quite a few. good luck