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I am heading down to the Cumberland River (Burkesville) next week for a few days. I have not fished it in over 10 years but I am going down with another guy that some experience fishing the river. We were told to catch some baitfish (alewives or skipjacks) prior to hitting the river. Does anyone have any pointers on how and/or where to catch the baitfish down that way?
Thanks in advance.
Not sure, but we threw large swimbaits and caught some nice striper. They are in there! Good luck.
-Rich
Use a cast net up in the creeks...or....head up into some creeks and use small minnow imitating lures that run 1 to 4 foot deep and fish for bait fish. Fishin' the river ain't like any lake trip, be prepared to work your tail-end off, but the rewards can most definitely be better than any lake trip, bar none in my opinion., ain't no fish in any body of water got anything over the fish in the Cumberland River in my opinion...when I die, I want to be burried in Burkesville or have my ashes dumped in the Cumberland River!
If the flow is low, forget everything I just wrote and put on your waders.
[QUOTE=Chubminnow;421036]Use a cast net up in the creeks...or....head up into some creeks and use small minnow imitating lures that run 1 to 4 foot deep and fish for bait fish. Fishin' the river ain't like any lake trip, be prepared to work your tail-end off, but the rewards can most definitely be better than any lake trip, bar none in my opinion., ain't no fish in any body of water got anything over the fish in the Cumberland River in my opinion...when I die, I want to be burried in Burkesville or have my ashes dumped in the Cumberland River!
If the flow is low, forget everything I just wrote and put on your waders.[/QUOTE]
You hit the nail on the head there couldn't agree with you more I like your style, although I'd skip the waters and float the river.
Floating is good but I'll tell ya...the past few years about this time of year I believe I could have waded that dang river all the way from the dam on down to the Tennessee line, that's how little the flow was.
Can't take credit for my style...just had a good teacher.
[QUOTE=Chubminnow;421096]Floating is good but I'll tell ya...the past few years about this time of year I believe I could have waded that dang river all the way from the dam on down to the Tennessee line, that's how little the flow was.
Can't take credit for my style...just had a good teacher.[/QUOTE]
Yeah i agree with you there. you can pretty much walk to Tennessee. Never a dull moment on the cumberland river. The lower flow takes a bit more work ,but i for one strive on the rising waters of days gone by. What we have three more years of this?
I used to fish the river all summer long, BUT that was before the dam problems began.Right now at burkesville, you can almost walk across the river in many places. My 16 ft jon boat was limited to only about 4 miles of fishable water.Plus the water is no longer as clear as it used to be, and much warmer.I dont know how much longer the work on the dam is going to take, and I dont care anymore, moved to glasgow.Before the construction started I could go out and catch 10 or 15 nice trout a day using jigs, now the water is so dingy, two fish was my best last week.