Striper fishing at Cumberland

[luvtohunt]

Forgot depth sorry. We caught fish in 25-30 foot range.

[thunderstorm]

We fished a couple of days trolling shiners in the creeks. Didn't do any good the first day...just a couple of largemouths. Next evening went way up the creek and fished in 23-30' of water and caught a couple of stripers at about 15'. We fished the next morning in the same area and caught 1/2 dozen or so largemouths. No stripers that morning. Water temp 50 the last morning.

[luvtohunt]

I'm no pro at it but learning to throw a net changed striper fishing for me. This time of year you can find a ton of bait in the heads of the creeks. We usually catch ours when we get on the water. I have been trolling behind guys fishing with shiners before and us with shad and we catch fish when they weren't. It makes a difference!!

[thunderstorm]

What kind of bait do you catch in the heads of the creek? Day time I'm assuming?

[luvtohunt]

Threadfin shad between 4-7 inches is typically what we target. Put in at around 7:30, run to the head of the creek and watch for them to flip. Troll over close and throw the net. Usually end up with enough shad to fish all day by 8:15 or so and start fishing. Sometimes it takes longer if they aren't schooled well or are too small.

[thunderstorm]

I didn't know threadfins got that big. Thanks.

[Duayne]

I don't mean to discredit information, but I haven't seen seven inch threads on Cumberland. There may be some, and I am open to the concept, but the average thread is around three and good ones run 4 to MAYBE 5.5. Maybe there are some bigger that I haven't seen. But in the backs, you are much more likely to run into seven inch gizzards under smaller bait flipping on top. A seven inch gizzard is like striper candy. If you can get them and keep them, you are probably going to have a good day until the water gets colder. Then the smaller stuff will work best.