Cumberland River-Burkesville

Was at the Cumberland at Burkeville on Friday. I was amazed at how low it was and startled at the water temps. With a large outboard you could not go above the first big gravel bar upstream, nor below Traces. You also had to be very careful with the other gravel bars between those two locations. The water temp just abover Burkesville was 68 degrees and 71 at Traces. The Traces ramp was unuseable. To my knowledge with a decent size boat the only ramps you can access the river would be at the dam (though that would be tough), Burkesville downtown and McMillins Ferry at Tompkinsville. I caught my first smallmouth in the river just above Hereford's bend. I guess they are beginning to migrate into the river due to the elevated temps. Has anyone heard from game and fish what the anticipate as to damage to the trout fishery from the temps? Also, anyone know of any other ramps where one can safely launch an 18 ft aluminum with 115 motor other than the 3 I mentioned? I'm sure Bakerton is not doable. I did catch a lot of fish including a couple of nice rainbows in the slot. Fish were constantly popping the water on the gravel bars. I would tell you to exercise extreme caution as the water is lower than you can imagine and it would be a great opportunity to lose a lower unit. I look forward to what others are finding,,,,especially with regard to useable public ramps.

The cumberland river is as low as I have seen it in several years of fishing that fishery. I hope the trout isn't affected by the warming water but its probaly inevitable that its going to have a serious affect. Another fish that I am worried about is the Walleye and Stripers which also thrive in the cold water environment. About getting a bigger type boat in the only ramp that I would consider would be the one at Thompkinsville.

Rainbows can handle temps into the low 70's but Browns I THINK can only handle temps into the high 60's for LONG periods of time.
If the drought continues this could be a problem.. however Dale has some cool water and some trout will migrate down to the Obey and others will move closer to the dam.. toward cooler water.. HOPEFULLY by September the dam will be fixed enough to raise water levels and river levels both.
Jim Dicken

Fished the river also last few days, this is the lowest I have ever seen it in the 15 yrs I've lived here.This is going to be a bigger problem than we think. I release all my fish, and these warmer waters are going tomincrease mortality even with carefully released trout.I'm afraid that our dreams of the river returning to higher levelssoon, are just that dreams. It is rumored that burkesville is going to need to re route their water intake system, and so is the albany water dept, why?And, I hate to do this, I'm for any kind of fishing as long azs it is legal, but guys, maybe once you get the limit on live bait or scented baits, think about what is happening to your catch and release.

by the way. i fish artificials, and mostly single hook baits.

What's the river like down by Cloyd's Landing & McMillian's Ferry. Is the depth suitable for drifting down toward the state line (striper) or are there area's that a 17' boat won't clear?

Not sure how it would be downstream. Didn't get the opportunity to even try when we were there on Saturday morning. Woman at Traces turned us around, said we wouldn't make it through the first chute (17' deep-V with 50 HP). They quit renting their little boats out, since one got stuck three different times. Fella at Strange Bait said he'd lived there for 42-years and has never seen it that low in his life. If ya know a good rain dance, start bustin a move. That's the only chance the river has to survive in the condition we're all used to.

Here's my problem. I put in at Helms and had to literally drag my 14' off the trailer and then I had to walk my boat downstream until I reached deeper waters. Finally made it to the power lines where I waded for 100's of yards without any problem. Stupid me didn't think about getting back up stream with dropping water levels. I was just lucky enough to have get the boat back up river, but I had to do a lot of fine tuning my direction and engine depth to get back to the landing.

I'm finding the fishing to be as good as ever, but navagation of the river is difficult right now. Winphrey's Ferry always seemed to be deep...does anyone know how it looks.

Troutcrazy, I also fished the river on Sunday with my nephew. We put in at Winfreys Ferry ramp around 2 PM. I’ve fished the river sine early eighties and have seen the river this low before but never this low for this long. There was enough water to get my small boat floating. We struggled through a couple of very shallow areas and had to get out push/pull the boat. Water did not feel that cold at all. We caught a lot of browns but only one small rainbow. We also saw at least ten dead trout either floating or on the bottom. One was a nice 18 inches or so rainbow. As LarryG mentioned, with this low water level and high water temperature, the mortality rate of the released trout is going to be very high. We released all of our fish as quickly as possible but unfortunately, there is no guarantee they survived.