Cumberland conditions

[FlyLie]

Went out Saturday on West end of LC and measured main lake surface water temperature at 72.8 at 6:35 am and 73.3 at 1:30 pm. Surface temperaure in back of Brown Creek (off Indian Creek) was 74.0 at 11:50 am. Cooler air temperatures in the forecast for next week should continue to move the water temp down.

[kybluediver1]

Took the boys out for a few hours Sunday. Had several bites bass fishing but couldn't land a single one. They wanted to mainly look for striper jumps. We only saw two relatively small groups come up and got to them in time to make exactly one cast each. First jump, both the boys hooked up. My lure got smacked probably 6-7 times (sometimes knocking the bait a foot out of the water) but I stuck none of them. They pulled two nice keepers out of that school. Stayed there for another half hour but never saw the school again. Then ran into a small school jumping on the main lake and we got exactly one cast in them before they went down and hooked up a 3rd keeper. Not bad considering how few schools we came across. It's been 3 years since I can find a school that will stay up longer than 60 seconds. Maybe that will change this year but usually I get there too little too late. This time we found a little success (well the kids did anyway. I got skunked).

[Mean Morone]

I've fished LC for 20 yrs and have experience jumps that lasted more than a few seconds only once. That year we found two different schools that stayed up for a long time. One school stayed up for 45 minutes and the other school stayed up for 3 hours. Of course I only fish in Nov. and Dec. so my experience is not the norm. For many years the prime time for jumps was the second week of Oct. It was very consistent for years until they began working on the dam and then you could not predict jumps at all. They would come up in the middle of summer and stay up for awhile. It sounds like the stripers are wanting to stay up and maybe after this weeks cooler temps it will drop the surface temps under 70 deg and turn them on. Of course it's all theory because the stripers have changed from their normal routine since the dam repair. Hopefully they will return to their old ways in the next year or two. I'm still waiting for the shore brush to float away so I can get back to plugging the banks.

[FlyLie]

Water temperature Sat 70, Sun 69, Mon 68 in main lake and creeks.

[Mean Morone]

Flylie that is the same as we had over the weekend. Dropped 2 deg. Friday to Monday. Fishing got worse for us too. Friday was the best day. We fished main lake from dam to below Wolf creek. We fished the mouths of three different creeks but didn't go up in them. If the turnover is taking place, it would be in the creeks first.