FLW Lake Cumberland

[TimE]

i can appreciate that the kdfwr biologist "doubt" that the smallmouth havent/arent spawning, but i would ask is this conclusion based on a projection due to the time of year, or water temps or what exactly? what "hands-on" day to day real time information do they have?

i will tell you what real time information i have, sunday i caught 6 smallmouth that were 19 inches plus that were out in 30 feet of water, their stomachs were concave and they were gorging on shad as if they had the post-spawn feed bag on. in slightly shallower water i caught a 17 inch smallmouth that looked like it was about to explode. so like every other year there are all different stages going on at the same exact time.

as for holes shot in any post i remember reading one about the flw pros not targeting spawning smallmouth, when they actually wrote and explained how they were targeting spawning smallmouth. you wont have to youtube it

I'm sure he was talking about stable water temps. You can google smallmouth spawning temps and I don't think Lake Cumberland had reached those stable temps yet. Scratch that, I know it hadn't.

Bryan Thrift won the tournament targeting primary points, hardly a bed pattern. I myself don't believe Ky has had enough stable weather for any fish including crappie (the biologists agreed) to spawn. We have had a few good days so I don't know, certainly different than the first day of flw tournament where it snowed during practice.

I can't seem to find that article, haven't looked real hard but thought I had read about everything on it as I was interested on their techniques and patterns. Look, I wish we could go back 20 years to when our local lakes were not beat to death, not gonna happen though. Also I think out of all the Ky lakes that Lake Cumberland is the most capable of withstanding pressure. It will just be a few more weeks and the outside interest will disappear when the fish start following schools of baitfish or suspending in the middle of nowhere.

And then? The bass fishermen can go back to blaming the striper fishermen for destroying the lake.

[stripernut1]

I'm sure he was talking about stable water temps. You can google smallmouth spawning temps and I don't think Lake Cumberland had reached those stable temps yet. Scratch that, I know it hadn't.

Bryan Thrift won the tournament targeting primary points, hardly a bed pattern. I myself don't believe Ky has had enough stable weather for any fish including crappie (the biologists agreed) to spawn. We have had a few good days so I don't know, certainly different than the first day of flw tournament where it snowed during practice.

I can't seem to find that article, haven't looked real hard but thought I had read about everything on it as I was interested on their techniques and patterns. Look, I wish we could go back 20 years to when our local lakes were not beat to death, not gonna happen though. Also I think out of all the Ky lakes that Lake Cumberland is the most capable of withstanding pressure. It will just be a few more weeks and the outside interest will disappear when the fish start following schools of baitfish or suspending in the middle of nowhere.

And then? The bass fishermen can go back to blaming the striper fishermen for destroying the lake.

Hahahahaha!!!! See , we do agree on something....
Have a good one

[Les Young]

I'm sure he was talking about stable water temps. You can google smallmouth spawning temps and I don't think Lake Cumberland had reached those stable temps yet. Scratch that, I know it hadn't.

Bryan Thrift won the tournament targeting primary points, hardly a bed pattern. I myself don't believe Ky has had enough stable weather for any fish including crappie (the biologists agreed) to spawn. We have had a few good days so I don't know, certainly different than the first day of flw tournament where it snowed during practice.

I can't seem to find that article, haven't looked real hard but thought I had read about everything on it as I was interested on their techniques and patterns. Look, I wish we could go back 20 years to when our local lakes were not beat to death, not gonna happen though. Also I think out of all the Ky lakes that Lake Cumberland is the most capable of withstanding pressure. It will just be a few more weeks and the outside interest will disappear when the fish start following schools of baitfish or suspending in the middle of nowhere.

And then? The bass fishermen can go back to blaming the striper fishermen for destroying the lake.

The striper haven't hurt it at all in my book. They may be a little oppurtunistic at feeding sometimes like every other game fish, but they rarely bother any bass & definitley haven't bothered the population as some would say. I know guys that use to cut their gills & turn them loose simply because of their unimformed stupidity blaming the striper any time there was a down cycle on cumberland. If they'd think what the shad population would be without them they'd probably be thankful for them. I personally like night time striper fishing in early spring more so then bass fishing & go every weekend until the water starts getting to warm then i start smallmouth fishing.