Hey Elwood,

If you've never been on the Cumberland River I would highly suggest getting a guide the first day...that river can be mighty unpredictable at times. Depending on if they're generating at the dam or not the water level can fluctuate greatly in a short period of time. Of course the further down stream towards Tennessee that you go the less of a problem this will be.

As for the Alewives, I haven't a clue as to where you might get them...I would recommend you call Strange Bait in Burkesville (1-270-864-2248) and ask them, there's a ramp there in Burkesville too. Actually if you call Randell Gibson with Kentucky Trophy Fishing he also may be of some help to you, his number is 1-270-433-7395. Randell has been guiding the river, the lake and Dale Hollow for many years, he's been on Ky Afield numerous times, etc. Or check out their website at www.kytrophyfishing.com

It's been several years ago now but I used Randell one fall for a guided river trip fishing for the BIG stripers, I took my dad with me...we didn't catch any fish that day although we had one make one heck of a nice blow up on the bait we were pulling. What we did was meet up with Randell at Strange Bait about 5:30 or 6:00, put in at the Burkesville Ramp and from there we went up stream and drifted back down at a speed that was slightly faster than the current. Like I said, we were pulling planer boards and using BIG shiners. Randell kept the boat in the center of the river and tried placing each planer board up near the bank on each side. After so long a time, we repeated this same thing, ran the big motor up stream and drifted back down slightly faster than the current. Since the other poster on this thread mentioned spring being the best time for the river, my experience in the fall that one year would agree with him.

As for the book that Traces on the Cumberland sells, I have that book and can share it with you. Give me a call anytime, 502-418-5361.

While you're on the river you may want to try for some trout, there are some huge trout in that river and I gaurantee you can catch some nice one's, here again, give me a call if you like and we can discuss in further detail.

Tim