Bass Fishing Report / / /part one

What a 4 day trip to Lake Cumberland...much to say, but little time to talk about it.
For starters..the black bass are in the starting stages of going shallow.
On day one, fished from 12 noon to dark...caught two keep bass in 4 feet of water; just over 15"...in the back of a Pitman Creek..along with 9 dinks....But the story of the day here folks is the 17lb striper I caught...in 4 feet of water...with 12lb floro...on a rattle trap!!! I was all by myself..and had a fight I'll never forget for the rest of my life!! I've caught a few 7 and 8 pounders ...real stripers...but never one as big as this! I just wore her down..played with my drag..and finaly, after what seem to be over 5 min. landed the beast! Got pictures coming to my e-mail...but yet to recieve. I've never kept a striper...but this one came to the cabin with me (wouldn't completly fit in my live well)...Bobby arrived....We had striper on the Grill that night! It was the best fish I've had in my life, aside from Walleye!! We stayed at Cumberland Cove...at Burnside, great folks there to take care of ya, nice fishing cabins!!
The next day...even though it was raining just a bit...it was a great day as well. "Booby Shake" was with me...and he landed 4 keeper largemouths (& a bunch of dinks)...all in shallow or right on the rocks...two toads, both around 3lbs easy, 17". I had 3...just over 15" on CB's...Bobby's all were on his 6" lizard, I found that to be unreal. We also boated a few spots that were also keeprs; all up Pitman Creek, when we caught a keeper...we left and went to another area of the creek; evey area we went to, when we bared down, we would catch a nice keeper. The water temp there was great...55 / 56..(that is also were I landed the huge striper). From other lake reports...this water was the warmest found basicaly anywere on the lake, from my understanding. Also, this water up Pitman had good bass fishing color to it...where the water was a little stained...it's where we would get better bites!
Sat. we drove to fishing creek...just to do something different...It started off slow, fishing shallow, 5ft or less...not getting a morning bite...water maybe to clear for my tast. So we just ran around in Fishing creek...watched many boats landing striper on flats....non as big as mine, that I saw, but they were on fire! I personaly felt that some of the big striper were way back in the creeks, saw them hitting shad back in Pitman for sure!!! We did get on a afternoon bite...Bobby caught the largest bass of the trip...back in a cove in very shallow water...it was a 19" brute. Before the afternoon was over...we both caught 2 keeper largemoughs each..They are wanting to move up...and the bite there is realy getting ready to blow up in the next week to come.
More later on our tournaments results...and the Ky Lake and Barkley detailed report...got to run for now.

PART TWO.
Sat. (tournament day)...in a nute shell...got my butt spanked! The weather was brutal;...the wind was so strong twice..I sware it almost blew me off the deck of my boat!!!! Also the cold rain was so strong, that it was stinging my face...I was looking for the tornado somewhere close...but it was just some very strong wind and rain; got a little scary at times...in my tracker!!!. So we didn't make the run I wanted to...like fishing creek. Did make it to Pitman though...but many tournament anglers there...right on my No. 1 and No. 2 spots!!! Needless to say my shallow water bite was gone for most of the day...and my back up plan was scetchy...so we came up short; blanked...I took it very hard...so did Bobby. I learned that if your shallow water bite goes away...you better have a good back up plan...I didn't. But the results for the club's was OK. Our winner had 13.89lbs for first place...did have a few members that had 7 and 8 keepers combined. We had a smallmouth for big fish, that was pushing 5lbs! Had quite a few smallmouth brought to the scales..they looked fat with eggs; also good numbers of largemouths; the few members I talked with...went to fishing creek??
Ky. Lake was slow... My buddy Jeff said that they are holding water big time...becouse of the Mississippi was over it's banks...and all the flooding in the South?? It affected the bass bite big time...but they still caught one that was over 4lbs!! They did catch some keepers...but the bite slowed down a bit, from the previous week....as far as big bass being caught. They caught over 60 bass everyday; but only few keepers each day they were there (4 days); and they are very good big bass hunters...they were hunting the big gals...but not many takers. Said they were throwing a bunch of jerk baits. He also told me that Barren River Lake was hot over the weekend...also Rough River, from what he heard from his peeps; for bass fishing??