Lake Cumberland "Jumps"

[dabassking]

Agreed and here is my take on it and it will be met with people getting flustered or laughing at me.

I think the fish are adapting to boat and human pressure. I saw a jump in creek X two weeks ago that was every bit of 60 to 80 fish in it. It was one of the largest jumps I have seen in the last three years. I was 200 yards away and I started the big motor and started, ''EASING'' that way. Well I closed it to about 100 yards and they went down and I was just getting ready to stop the big motor. Well a week later it happened again on a smaller jump in almost the exact same fashion. Now maybe I'm giving the Striped rascals way too much credit but maybe I'm not. BTW I saw this happen a lot last year as well.

Pressure any creature enough and they eventually start adapting to that pressure and do things differently. I have hunted and fished all my life and have seen this with many of God's furry and scaly creations.


They hear that big motor coming from a great distance and associate it with humans and boats. Laugh at me all you want if anybody has a better theory I'm listening...

I definitely agree that fish can become conditioned to outboard noise. I don't fish Cumberland much, but I know when the bass get into the jumps at Nolin, you have to get that dumb school that doesn't go down when you idle to them. Or you have to get lucky enough for the jumps to come up within casting distance. You could waste half a tank of gas chasing jumps across that lake and you might not even catch a fish.

That reminds me of a school that my dad and I got into at Nolin this summer. There was the biggest school either of us had ever seen across the lake. We watched it for a bit and it just wouldn't go down, so we idled over there and sure enough, they stayed up! We were jacked! It was like we had our boat in the middle of a boiling pot of water with all the fish busting all around us. We threw everything we had and never got bit for as long as the fish stayed up. What's up with that? We're still confused as to why they wouldn't eat anything we threw. I guess when you have that much real bait, there isn't a reason to hit anything that looks suspicious.

[Duayne]

That reminds me of a school that my dad and I got into at Nolin this summer. There was the biggest school either of us had ever seen across the lake. We watched it for a bit and it just wouldn't go down, so we idled over there and sure enough, they stayed up! We were jacked! It was like we had our boat in the middle of a boiling pot of water with all the fish busting all around us. We threw everything we had and never got bit for as long as the fish stayed up. What's up with that? We're still confused as to why they wouldn't eat anything we threw. I guess when you have that much real bait, there isn't a reason to hit anything that looks suspicious.

I would guess you found some fish feeding on fry and what you were throwing didn't match the hatch. Sometimes it doesn't matter, sometimes I think it does.

[stripernut1]

the best way to ruin a nite bite is to leave the graph on.....its a head shot in my opinion. i dont worry so much about it during the daytime because im on the move. but when im sitting stationary i leave the graph off

[Mean Morone]

Yep, that's how my buddy and I fish. Everything off. Had a guy show us in his boat how he does it and it was like a stinkin city all lit up. He kept looking at his fish finder to see bait, and in the water because he had a light shining in the water. Very strange. Just can't make myself do it.