Cumberland Crappie

[SSKY]

I know that there are those that do well crappie fishing on lake cumberland in the winter,so i will offer big beg for info. I know several people that fish for then but they revel in not telling me anything, and they catch fish. with the lake being down I can see that putting out cover in spots that no one else would ever fish would work. I do not want the cover spots. Just some simple info on how to catch them which be assumed community spots. I really stink at catching crappie,and it makes me crazy.

[IFISH2]

Between 2000, and 2002 my friend and I thought we had unlocked the secret for big wintertime crappie on Cumberland. Beginning late Nov through early Jan we did what I consider exceptionally well, (good days were 15 to 25 crappie from 12 to 15 inches in length. The pattern was the head of the major creeks, Beaver, Otter, White Oak, Wolf etc... Wood cover was key. Naturally occuring (lay down or standing stuff on slides) or the planted stuff (cedar trees etc)Elevation around 690 - 695 seemed ideal. Still good amount of wood in the water. Slides/channel banks with wood from 6 feet to 30 feet depth. A couple of our favorite spots were slides with wood with 25 feet in the channel. Somedays we caught at 5 to 10 foot deep but on average 10 to 20. Four and six pound line with 1/16th weedless lead heads (fiber or wire as you normally had to crwal the jig through cover)with the 1 or 1 1/2" Bass Assassin (Panfish Assassin)straight tail grub. Pearl and the numerous shad colors seemed to work best as normally the water had some color but a little on the clear side. Usually a countdown of 10 to 20 with a super slow steady retrieve is what paid off. Four or five off of one spot seemed to be the exception so we moved alot (couple here and a couple there. 2004 we seemed to catch mainly throw backs, 04 was a bust due to high water and this year we have struggled to even catch a crappie (before lake dropped below 690. Have caught some 5 to 10 pound stripers in the last couple of years on crappie jigs in some of our old crappie holes?? I dont know if this helps but it is a summary for what has worked for me. I would like to hear some more reports on this subject myself.