Mhall - I feel your pain. I absolutely love Cumberland, my love for the lake is probably for different reasons than many of the fisherman that frequent this website, but even still and none the less, I love that lake. After reading your response it makes me want to write a letter or make some phone calls to KDFWR, get them on the horn and address some of these issues and concerns. Of course if I did I'd probably get some bull crap like: "Well Mr. Minnow, we're in the process of making repairs to the dam and we're keeping water levels low, blah, blah, blah and so on..." I to have seen the pictures of the smallies, good sized smallies too, being held up when the people were fishing for and PAID to fish for stripers.

Dale has GOT to be my next venture...No, correction on that, Dale is DEFINITELY going to be my next venture. I am in the same boat as you Mhall (so to speak) for it is a long drive to Dale for me as well. Another lake I'd like to try for some spring time bassing is Green River Lake. And then too, there's always the Ohio River, which is in my own backyard. I know I can catch fish there down below the falls, but I don't get the same feeling out of fishing the Ohio as I do when I make a trip to one of our beautiful lakes in this region.

All in all it all comes down to the same ol' story for me, so many places I want to fish but so little time to fish them.