Cumberland striper report 7/21,7/22

[abssprint]

Hey guys..I've been more of a lurker than a poster on here for the last year or two, but really got into striper fishing last fall and thought I would return the favor and start sharing some fishing reports.

I recently upgraded the pontoon with an I- pilot and new fishfinder and decided to take a chance and fish a little on Saturday and Sunday. I was a little leery about even going since most of the reports I had read still had the fish very deep and out on the main lake.

The wife and I spent most of the afternoon Saturday idling around messing with the new fishfinder. After seeing several schools of what I believed to be stripers, we caught up a bunch of bluegill for bait( since I hadn't planned on fishing I hadn't caught any shad the night before) and started fishing about 6pm. We fished 8 rods...2 down rods, 4 planer boards, and 2 floats. Everything was set between 20 and 30 ft deep. We ended up catching 1 about 24" before we had to head in.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...921_190013.jpg

We ended going back out to the same spot on Sunday evening and catching 3 more. A 23", a 24", and a 28". All at about 25ft. I attched a couple of pictures of my graph showing the fish and bait. You can see the horizontal line at the bottom of one the pictures which is one of the bluegill I was pulling on one of the down rods. The other is a split screen showing both fish and bait on sonar and down imaging.

For the record, I was fishing the upper end of the lake about 3/4 of the way back in a creek! I guess they all don't go to the dam. I hope some one finds this helpful. I fish almost every weekend and will try to keep these post updated.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...922_192754.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...921_192724.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...920_164629.jpg

[peter]

Very interesting. Especially the 3/4 the way back in the creek and the down image.
Thanks.

Keep em coming.

[Duayne]

They definitely do not all do the same things. Bluegill can be a good bait. Some think that removing all or part of the dorsal fin will up the chances of a hit. I've always done it and I can't say if it helps. I certainly don't think it hurts.

[stripernut1]

Yesterday i reported in another "c-land striper report thread" that we caught fish much shallower than we had been catching them....seems like this happened literally overnight. My fishing partners caught them saturday morning shallow for the first time really since the end of june. I fished the same pattern this morning that got us 9 keepers yesterday morning and could only scrounge up 2 keepers this morning. i dont know, maybe 2 straight days of winds out of the ENE moved them again. Or they have put the roller skates on and are on the move ....its time for that...water was 76 right before daybreak this morning. Its funny i told Peter yesterday that we found the first school almost halfway up the creek.....hmmm raising this lake may be good after all LOL!

Great shots of the graph, i am "re-graphing" this winter and you have given me yet another option. Do you like youre "Raymarine" ?

thanks , and congrats to you and the fishergal, nice fish !

[abssprint]

Yesterday i reported in another "c-land striper report thread" that we caught fish much shallower than we had been catching them....seems like this happened literally overnight. My fishing partners caught them saturday morning shallow for the first time really since the end of june. I fished the same pattern this morning that got us 9 keepers yesterday morning and could only scrounge up 2 keepers this morning. i dont know, maybe 2 straight days of winds out of the ENE moved them again. Or they have put the roller skates on and are on the move ....its time for that...water was 76 right before daybreak this morning. Its funny i told Peter yesterday that we found the first school almost halfway up the creek.....hmmm raising this lake may be good after all LOL!

Great shots of the graph, i am "re-graphing" this winter and you have given me yet another option. Do you like youre "Raymarine" ?

thanks , and congrats to you and the fishergal, nice fish !

I only have 2 days under my belt with the Raymarine- Dragonfly, but so far I couldn't be happier. It uses the new CHIRP technology and for @ $550 bucks I don't know how you could beat it. The only possible negative I can see is the screen size is only like 5.7", but it's so crisp and bright it actually feels bigger than that.

[stripernut1]

is that 5.7 in diagonal ? or horizontal ? i love the screen view you have in the pic. I have a lowrance HDS and have been having more an more trouble with it in the last couple of months, i replaced the transducer last week and thought it helped, but today i am right back to adjusting and fine tuning....it seems like it loses "its mind" every few days and you have to start all over again. i like "piddlin" with my graph but only to improve what im seeing, not maintain evry few days. frustrating to say the least, and probably the last lowrance i will ever own.

thanks again, nice pics

[snapper30]

Just wondering if you were in fishing creek area? I have my boat at lees ford and getting*back home in 2 weeks to start fishing. I would love to hear that there are some keepers in the area.

I know that even in the middle of aug that there was several schools of small stripers in the area. All probally 20" or less

[headbanger]

Thanks for posting, I just ordered a Dragonfly myself. Really looking forward to getting down to Cumberland after I get it installed.

[cghuntcms]

I marked very few fish in 65 to 90 feet near the bottom on the eastern side of the mouth of Indian Creek yesterday and caught none. I talked to another fisherman & he had one fish in the same area without ever marking any fish.

[peter]

I marked very few fish in 65 to 90 feet near the bottom on the eastern side of the mouth of Indian Creek yesterday and caught none. I talked to another fisherman & he had one fish in the same area without ever marking any fish.

Post is my current theory / summation. Been wrong before.

Don't feel bad. I just got the temp and 02 report and compared the temp and 02 from last week to approx the same time period in 2011. The striper environment down deep is about the same as it was in 2011. Not good. I have sat over good size active schools in the last two weeks week and not had any bites (shinners). Even one or two rods should have gone down with what I was seeing on the screen even with shinners. The fish I have caught in the last few weeks were thin. Even had two on that I did not discover until reeling all the rods up. One time I had a huge cluster. Spent ten minutes cutting and untangling lines and finally had just one cut line to pull out of the water by hand. There was a 24" fish on it. Apparently that fish had been lazily wondering through all my lines. I was able to display most of my terminal tackle and bait to a couple of guides and their customers because most of it was suspended in the air forming a spider web around my boat. I didn't see them taking any notes. The event probably reinforced their decision to spend the money on a professional. Cant wait to go back.

[FlyLie]

Post is my current theory / summation. Been wrong before.

Don't feel bad. I just got the temp and 02 report and compared the temp and 02 from last week to approx the same time period in 2011. The striper environment down deep is about the same as it was in 2011. Not good. I have sat over good size active schools in the last two weeks week and not had any bites (shinners). Even one or two rods should have gone down with what I was seeing on the screen even with shinners. The fish I have caught in the last few weeks were thin. Even had two on that I did not discover until reeling all the rods up. One time I had a huge cluster. Spent ten minutes cutting and untangling lines and finally had just one cut line to pull out of the water by hand. There was a 24" fish on it. Apparently that fish had been lazily wondering through all my lines. I was able to display most of my terminal tackle and bait to a couple of guides and their customers because most of it was suspended in the air forming a spider web around my boat. I didn't see them taking any notes. The event probably reinforced their decision to spend the money on a professional. Cant wait to go back.

Interesting Info. Thanks for posting. Question, where or how does one get lake oxygen info?

[cghuntcms]

Interesting dilemma. My live bait, whether I use, shiners, pumpkinseeds, bluegill, or creek chubs seem to die very quickly. If I couldn't find any hungry fish, they'd last from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Lately, they don't last 10 minutes. I generally use 1/2 oz. trolling sinkers and thought I was dropping them too fast towards the bottom.