cumberland largemouths

[mhall]

So true Chub, so true. I love the big C as well for many reasons other than fishing. I've got many memories there including video of me and my daughter playing and laughing in the water together when she was little. Now she's 16 and doesn't want to do that with ole dad anymore. Cumberland has always been a tough lake to fish and will humble the best. All that being said I've fished there long enough to usually always put something togethter but it's getting harder year after year. I am not the only one that thinks this either, lot's of long time good fisherman on that lake are singing this same sad song. Lakes go in cycles and maybe Cumberland will bounce back soon, I sure hope so. Take care Mark.

[geobass]

I think that maybe, just maybe we need to learn how to fish for largemouths off shore. I think they are still there we just need to adjust. They still have everything they need. So what if the lake has less water, there is still alot of it. I never thought they could hold a walleye tournament on the lake (below Burnside) and they would catch so many fish. I for one still think Cumberland is the best lake year round in this area. Trust me if weren't there wouldn't be so many tournaments on it.
geobass

[HARDROCK]

Cumberland still has plenty of Largemouth, although i'm sure the water level changes haven't helped them..The fish have evolved because of the tremendous amount of both fishing and pleasure boating pressure and the new types of shad in the lake now.
Like Laurel River Lake deep clear water resivoirs are hard to fish anyway.
When you have bait fish that are suspended 30 feet deep in 100 ft of water it makes it tuff to catch the fish that eat them..
I can tell a diffence in all the game fish i fish for at Cumberland over the last 15 years.....INCLUDING the stripers...
I do think , however, that the smallmouth and stripers have done a beter job adjusting to the introduction of the alwife ( i prob spelled that wrong) shad.
We as fisherman are gonna have to do a better job of adjusting as well.

[RC5]

There is still good numbers of lm in Cumberland, yet I will say I've never had a tremendous lm day on Cumberland like I have other fish. People that supposedly know more about this kind of stuff say that the stripers don’t hurt other game fish populations I disagree. I'm sure muskies had something to do with Cave Run. If anything I would have to go with the water fluctuation theory. I think if they did keep the water level at 705 till the dam gets fixed it could help the spawn out tremendously. As for spots and smallmouths I think they have adjusted to the alewives and some stay relatively deep all year long where most fishermen don’t fish that deep and feed on them year round. I will say I caught a lm there a couple weeks ago that was about 22-23 inches long and weighed 4.1 lbs.

[Chubminnow]

RC5 - Just curious to know where abouts you were at on the Lake when you caught that nice large mouth.