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Skippy jacks be below the dam. I bet the Stripers below the dam feast on them.
The Cumberland River below the dam is waters of Lake Cumberland. And the Cumberland River from above the lake.
Q1: Are there Skipjack in the Lake?
Q2: If not, would the Lake Stripers eat them if presented as live bait?
Q3: Would "importing bait" from the river, be illegal in the lake?
Dunno about lake stripers but the ones in the Ohio love skips. 4"-10" skips are by a land slide the best bait to use. Not to mention they can be fun to catch when you get a couple 2lb'ers on the line at once. From what I remember about skips they pretty much need moving water. If they did populate a lake I think it would be really really bad news. They lay tons of eggs and get big fast.
I'd love to see them populate the lake. Yes they grow big fast but I've seen 3lb 22 inchers end up as dinner for a stripe. Think about how much energy a stripe would have to exert to end up with 3 lbs of alwives in it's belly. I've gotten into this argument on other boards before but all I know is the watersheds that have skips and stripes tend to have monster stripes. Besides that it's a lot of fun to pull bait so big that the direction on the planer board is merely a suggestion....lol.
Skips eat live fish too so they'd def compete with crappie for forage.
Bob - even with an advanced high dollar tank with oxygen it wouldn't be worth the effort to bring em from the river to the lake. Not sure about leagality but since they're not currently in the lake I'd bet it's a no-no.
If you want to trophy fish the lake you'd be better off netting some large gizzards in the heads of the creeks and going that route. Or better yet, take that pretty new boat below the dam and fish for em there. After you hook up with a few down there it'll be hard for you to fish the lake again.
Lowerider,
Agree on keeping them alive, they'd have to like you sais in the lake for catch and immediate use.
I'd take the Raider below the dam, but that ramp down there scares the buggers out of me. And don't know where the next better closer one is, nor how to navigate the river and still have a prop and lower unit left on the Honda....LOL. I whine a lot don't I?!?!?!?!
:-)
I think I'll try catching some skippies below the dam, and just bottom fish them from right there. I'll leave the Raider in the parking lot so I have somewhere to sleep :-)
Remember one thing, skips are next to impossible to keep alive for long at all. Their scales also come off at the lightest of touches. They will clog a drain in about a minute. For some reason this year at Newburgh dam the skips have been much bigger than last year. At least a better population of bigger ones.
Bob
As long as they're running 20k+ at the dam you can launch the Queen Mary there with nothing to worry about. You could cut bait em from the bank too just make sure you bring a lot of lead. It'll take a lot of weight to fish perpendicular to heavy current.
[QUOTE=Lowerider;438407] Queen Mary QUOTE]
I like that! Now I know what to call that hole where the gas goes in.
Ha Bob give me a call and we will go and we can take my boat, I wont have a clue what to do as far as catching the stripers, but I know how to catch the skippies and know the river pretty good a long ways down from the dam. Might not catch any big fish, but I can show you a little about the river.
Billy
[QUOTE=410th;438418]Ha Bob give me a call and we will go and we can take my boat, I wont have a clue what to do as far as catching the stripers, but I know how to catch the skippies and know the river pretty good a long ways down from the dam. Might not catch any big fish, but I can show you a little about the river.
Billy[/QUOTE]
What a nice invite