Cumberland Striper Report?

I am hoping to get back on the water this weekend to striper fish. I've only been out once this year and put my g/f and her two daughters on fish. I've never had good luck in September so we will see how it goes. I think I will try changing the bait out often as was suggested. Usually I just pull the shiners until a line is hit or I get done fishing.

I'll probably try the main lake by Fishing Creek, even though there might not be many fish there this time of year.

Anyone know what the surface temp is right now?

Well, sounds like I definitely don't have the equipment to keep alewives alive this time of year. My tank is homemade and it does fine early in the year but i doubt it will work now. also, never pumped water from that deep to keep them cool. really appreciate that info stripernut.

i think if i return this month i'll buy the shiners and curse them all morning until i hook up ;). at least if i don't catch anything i can blame the shiners!


headbanger i use the frozen water bottle method too. it works just fine for cooling the temps off a few degrees.

Heading down Wednesday night to fish Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Is anyone catching their own live bait? Where are the best spots to do that right now?

[QUOTE=KY_Yankee;537637]Heading down Wednesday night to fish Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Is anyone catching their own live bait? Where are the best spots to do that right now?[/QUOTE]

see the above post...it will explain the bait deal right now.
man let me tell you it is a huge ordeal just to get it...much less keep it alive on the hook

I made it down and was able to fish Saturday and Sunday mornings. On Saturday I was marking a huge number of fish but not getting any bites. I was wondering the cold front had shut them down or what. Then I checked my lines and I was pulling dead shiners. I may have cooled the water in my bait tank too much and the shock of the warm lake water did them in. They would die within 15 minutes of being taken from the bait tank and into the lake. That goes along with what stripernut1 said about having trouble keeping the bait alive on the hook. I'm sure I missed some good fish. I've attached a screen shot from my fish finder.

On Sunday I wasn't marking as many fish but there were still some signs of stripers. I couldn't get them to bite on Sunday either. However, everything else was going to town on my bait. I dropped one shiner down to 25 feet and was getting ready to put the planer board on when the line got pulled out of my hand. When I pulled the line in I had a 16" large mouth. Another planer board pulled and my g/f grabbed the rod. She wasn't keeping the line tight and we saw another bass jump about 3 feet out of the water and throw the hook. Then we had 2 small mouths hit along with 2 catfish. The last fish of the day was a striper though but it was short at only 18". At least we had some activity that day.

I made it down and fished Saturday, Sunday and Monday mornings. Thanks stripernut1 for your guidence, we caught two keepers, one short and two channel cat Saturday. Nothing Sunday and one keeper and three nice chanel cats on monday. Marked a bunch of fish in what appeared to be schools, i assume they were stripes. Fished planer boards and down lines with shiners from 30 - 50ft.

Running bucktail jigs or spoons off downriggers is another option for those who do not want to mess with bait.

Fished planer boards and shiners 30-50' Saturday - Monday. Landed a 42'' striper and two small ones on Saturday afternoon, skunked on Sunday and a 30'' fish and two around 20'' on Monday. We were marking lots of big schools around the dam the entire time but like Adam said the bite was slow and inconsistent. Also marked a lot of good fish in the bend and creek mouths around Pig Pen but couldn't ever get them to bite. Looked like a lot of the guide boats were just parked on top of them with down lines waiting them out. Had a great time and looking to get back soon, real soon. I'll post a pic or two later on. Thanks to all you guys for the info!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9030[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9031[/ATTACH]

very nice fish! congrats

Thanks for the report back headbanger. I'm headed that way on Friday and that gives me a very good starting point.

That was a very nice fish!! One observation I made and maybe it was by chance, the fish we caught were on lines with larger bait. The store on the left closer to the dam had larger shiners.