Cumberland white bass

[Richman]

I still maintain the striper fishery has taken off at the same time the white bass have declined.

Open water schooling fish are an easy target.

Early spawn up the rivers and creeks with the linesiders??? You don't think they're eating them?

Rich

[JoeB]

No, they're not. I've cut open thousands of stripers, and have found a bunch of stuff, 99% of which is shad and alwives. I have found a few bluegill, crappie, waterdogs, and even a couple of walleye, but never a white bass. I'm not sure why the whites have disappeared, but my guess is an unidentified disease, similar to LBV. That's just a guess, so I really don't know why they vanished, but it was not because the stripers ate them.

[Richman]

I maintain that the stripers are eating the whites. While they do not eat the 10"-13" fish, they do eat the smaller 1"-3" fish because they are in schools in open water in the same areas before, during, and after the spawn with the linesiders.

Competition for available food when the whites are in their smaller fry stage is critical.

Finally I have no doubt that poor spawns and angler harvest account for great deal of population downturn in the whites.

But having said that..... yeah the fishing was great in the 80's for both species but the stripers were the only ones whose natural reproduction did not depend on their survival as fry....because they were then, and are still stocked in extrodinary numbers by the KDFWR.

Why do you think Lake Cumberland went from being a world class trout lake in the late 70's to no fish today? Go find an old dock advertisment from the 70's, and you'll see that's the fish they were hyping then.

My 2 cents.

Rich

[sprint]

you must not catch many stripers i have found 6lb smallmouth in a striper bunches of crappie and white bass.i have lived on cumberland all my life im 41 now,use to catch 100 crappie and white bass per now it takes me 2-5yrs to do.the kdfw will tell you anything(ask them about meanmouth bass)they say their is not such a fish we caught one and took it to them and they acted like we never brought one to them when we called about it.WHERE ARE THE WHITE BASS?

[mhall]

A six pound smallie in a stripers belly, man I would have liked to see that sriper, LOL.

[SSKY]

I really hate to fuel that fire, but how long would that smallmouth be. I have caught a striper below the dam close to the dam with 4 trout in the belly that were not that decomposed and it was still eating around 25 pounds, and if you want to fish for them below the dam in the spring the biggest skipjack that you can get 2 pounds 18 inch plus is the bait of choice if you can get one. (18 inch smallmouth =?) But Stripers did not create the demise of the white bass or they would have dissapeared much sooner in the early 80's. They surely helped and continue to add to to the restoration effort problem.

[mhall]

>I really hate to fuel that
>fire, but how long would
>that smallmouth be. I have
>caught a striper below the
>dam close to the dam
>with 4 trout in the
>belly that were not that
>decomposed and it was still
>eating around 25 pounds, and
>if you want to fish
>for them below the dam
>in the spring the biggest
>skipjack that you can get
>2 pounds 18 inch plus
>is the bait of choice
>if you can get one.
>(18 inch smallmouth =?) But
>Stripers did not create the
>demise of the white bass
>or they would have dissapeared
>much sooner in the early
>80's. They surely helped and
>continue to add to to
>the restoration effort problem.

Scott you've got to be freaking kidding. A 18 inch smallmouth is only about 3lb's and maybe some change on the most part. A six pound smallmouth is usually in the 21 inch plus range, give me a break guys, all of you and ten more like you are'nt gonna convince me a striper ate a six pound smallmouth. Our state record doesn't have mouth big enough to FIT a six pound smallmouth in it's mouth, I've seen the mount at a show, PLEEEEASE.

[SSKY]

I just asked the question, I have seen a striper ##### down a 18inch skipjack below the dam with no problem to the gills on the surface. i have also seen them hit a yellow bird planer board off a shoal on the surface while drifting though a shallow run. From what I have seen I would not consider it funny just what they can do. I believe that fish bigger than the record for cumberland lake have been caught in the river below the dam in the river. That being the case one would assume there may still be bigger fish still in the river fed on trout. I do not know check the ocean records as to see how big the species can get? and what size of things they eat.It would be intresting.

[PRO V LE]

MHall, I'm still laughing over that one too :)
Next we'll be posting warnings to keep children and pets from swimming in the lake.
Dave.

[apb]

You also have to consider that the best striper fishing was in the 80's, same as the White Bass, so I do not think Stripers are to blame. Probably a number of things. I would also be interested in hearing from someone who has a better understanding of this what the real reason(s) are. I also thought the state was trying to reintroduce White Bass to Cumberland by stocking?

Andrew

[SSKY]

Stock a place where who knows how many of thousands of fish existed naturally with no reason as to how they vanished? Study? Research? or try dump some more in and see what happens. Try to stock native walleye in the same water that they came from in cumberland and that is stupid? There has to be a reason for the white bass demise and i really think the managers do not care. No i do not think stripers ate them all, as of the mid 80's when the big stripers had their way with little fishing pressure from bait draggers there were plenty. I believe alewives made the difference as to how many fry they eat which is much more than the plankton focused shad. Just my opinion, And if you want to dump fish in the lake to see what happens then use the rockcastle river strain walleye that were here in the first place as far as stocking and let them fight it out.

[kygorski]

If you go back to the stocking of alewives, you'll know that several years after that the whites started to decline.The same thing with dale hollow.The white bass are making a return on the cumberalnd river, but it wont last long, over harvesting is taking place. there are NO alewives in the cumberland river.