My week long trip to Cumberland lasted 3 days. 3 days of the most frustrating Striper fishing ever in my life. I have never claimed to be a good striper fisherman but at least I thought I would catch a few during the "week" long trip. Here is my report which starts out with hooking up the boat Sunday and I go to raise the motor to put on the "motor totor" and my battery is dead. Just replaced in in January so out it goes back to the store and I get a replacement, at a pro-rated rate of $12. Get down to the BP to buy some shiners and my boat cover has ripped all the way across from side to side for whatever reason. The boat stays in the garage and the cover stays rolled up neatly on the shelf most of the time. I know it is not dry rotted so just bad luck, GO BACK HOME.
Leave the house just after midnight Sunday night and swearve left to miss one deer then right to miss 2 more within 2 miles of the house, note to self - TURN AROUND AND GO BACK HOME AND GET BACK IN BED!!! But oh no, I am glutten for punishment. On the water at 3am and plan on Smallmouth fishing until morning. Catch a few small ones all on secondary points in about 20 feet of water. Daybreak comes and I have it on good authority (2 different guides that fish the lake daily) that the fishing has been sporadic but SMALL shiners fished 40-60 feet deep on main lake river channels is most productive. Very windy Monday, I pulled 4 boards and a balloon for 9 hours with 1 1/2 ounce sinkers, 40-60 feet deep around the bluffs of Jamestown, pigpen wall and some part in front of Beaver Creek. Nothing, notta, no shad graphed and very few fish graphed. Guide boats everywhere doing everything from beached to fishing on bottom, planer boards, umbrella rigs, down riggers, which told me there was no pattern at all. Gave up and started fishing for Spots or Smallies. Ended up catching several spots with one nice 3 pounder and 2 more almost 2lb each. The KY's were easy to pattern. If you fished the bluffs, then hit the point and the "cuts" of the bluffs. I call a "cut" where the rock has eroded and fell into the lake causing a "V" in the bluff. Easy to pattern, shiner, small jig or 3/16 single blade spinnerbait. Ky's were very aggresive. The other Ky's came up in the bays off the main lake, look for the run-ins in the back of the pocket. If any wood was present then a Ky was too. Small spinnerbait would catch them everytime. 200 mile drive, 15 hours on the water and I am exhausted off to the cabin for sleep.
Back in at 2am Tuesday morning, again Smallies came secondary points 20-30 feet deep on small black and blue jig. I did catch a couple on a Black Zara Spook up shallow. In all no size to any of them. Daybreak and back to Striper fishing. I called my 2 guide buddies and both had terrible Mondays as well, one skunked and the other had 1 that barely met the 24" size limit. One pulled umbrella rigs and down riggers, the other down riggers and boards. I started with mix bag of small shiners and the biggest in my box from 40-80 feet deep. Trolled at different speeds on my trolling motor, swinging side to side to speed some up and slowing others down. Focused between Indian and Beaver Creek on main lake, just because that is where every other guide boat was on Monday and it looked the same on Tuesday as boats where everywhere in this small area. Trolled from Indian to Beaver and back, (Excellent trolling motor batteries by the way, Carquest Gold Deep Cycle) Caught 1 - 23 incher on the way down on big shiner, 80 feet behind planer board. I moved all 4 boards to between 60-80 deep with the biggest shiners I had left. Had 1 more hookup but it got tangled up with another line and got off ( I don't think it was very big). On the way back from Beaver towards Indian, a good pull down and I let her run pretty good with it before setting the hook, landed a 22 pounder. Pulled the rest of the day with nothing else.
Put in at 1am this morning and same pattern for smallies held. No size to them at all and I tried to fish deeper but caught nothing looking for larger fish. Could not move much for the FOG was so thick I could not see the parking lot lights from the ramp at Holcumb. Never did see the dam lights, idled around everywhere and used GPS and spotlight to miss landfall. About 5am, well before sunup, I graphed several big fish at 80 feet deep, so out with the boards. I was on the main lake in front of Indian creek heading towards Beaver. Set all 4 boards from 60-80 deep with biggest shiners around. Started pulling towards Beaver (Scared to death that a guide boat would run over me at any minute coming towards me), but that is the price to pay for a 40 pounder. Pulled from 5am to 1pm without a sniff. Sunup and fog finally lifted and the usual, 15 boat guide party on the sout side of the lake between Indian and Beaver had started. Some were beached, some were pulling boards, some downriggers with live bait and one guy pulled out the umbrella rig. Never saw one fish landed this morning. At least Tuesday I caught 2 and saw one guide boat land 3 (with 4 clients aboard). Today, nothing. 1pm headed to the ramp to take out and drive 200 miles back home. Save the last 2 days of this weeks vacation for December FNF, now I will have to spend 23 days FNF this year at Dale in instead of 21 to burn up the rest of vacation.
In all, no pattern. I never claimed to be a good striper fisherman but I never graphed ONE SINGLE school of baitfish. I ran from Harmon and Difficulty creeks to the Dam, main lake up into the heads of the creeks and even did something stupid and went a couple of miles up into Lilly, Beaver and Indian just to see if any shad were there. If you can catch them, you are better than me. Pulled boards for somewhere around 25 hours to land 1 keeper that obviously committed FISHICIDE is not my cup of tea. Never saw one fish bust, much less any schools in the jumps. Water is down a good 25-30 feet below the treeline, 64-65 degrees and GIN clear. Clear as any water that I have ever seen in Cumberland. I think it actually might have dropped about a foot over the 3 days in looking at a few spots on the bank.
One funny thing, I went in Tuesday night to Lake Cumberland Country Store to get supper after about 16 frustrating hours on the water and some guy is bragging on catching 6 Smallies with the smallest being 19 1/2 inches long. I hear the story and think he had a REAL good day with 6 over 4 pounders, it could happen. Then one of the guys ask him how big was the biggest and he said "26 3/4 inches long." I thought I mis-heard what he said until he said it again then went into details of how much it fought. I could not stand it anymore. I asked him did he keep it and he said no. Did you take a picture and he said no. I am not Smallie expert but I would think a 26 3/4 Smallie would be close to 10 pounds or over this time of year. I told him that he probably release one of the 10 biggest Smallmouth ever caught in the history of mankind. To which, he insisited that it measured 26 3/4" long and I told him that his tape measure is missing about 5 inches. I left laughing my a$$ off. Nice way to end the frustrating day with a bold face liar. It is one thing to stretch the truth but that is rediculous. Go get them.
Reply With Quote
