Striper Fishing

[peter]

Heading down this to do some striper fishing at Cumberland. Putting in at Jamestown. Wondering what creeks are on. Will look at Greasey, Beaver, and Otter first off. Usually this time of year they are in the backs of creeks and wanted to know if anyone has had success. Really appreciate any help.......

Repprt courtesy Conley Bottom Striper Guide Service 1/3/10 Happy New Year! We've had a real blast from old man winter since my last fishing report and the water has really cooled off. The surface temperature on the main lake is 43 degrees. Up in the creeks, you can probably find a little warmer water. As usual, when the water gets this cold, the stripers slow down and bait becomes very hard to catch. Although bites are much fewer and farther between, some of the biggest fish of the year annually turn up in the dead of winter. Just don't expect big numbers of fish. The bulk of the stripers will spend the remainder of the winter in the upper third of the creeks and tributaries. Live alwives, smaller gizzard shad, and suckers are the best baits. Since no thermocline exists at this time of year, expect to find fish anywhere in the water column. Adjust your lines accordingly. I usually pull baits behind planer boards with no weight just under the surface, 1/2 oz lines 20 - 30 ft back, and one oz wts 25 - 35 ft back. Place 3 oz down rods at whatever depth you're marking the most fish. This set up allows you to cover nearly all of the water column. If none of this works, bottom fish! Bottom fishing consists of simply tying the boat up to the bank and fan casting live shad / alwives out on the bottom using short leaders and 1 oz wts. If you know me, you know it's not my favorite way to fish, but it will catch fish when absolutely nothing else will. The best areas to bottom fish are usually where shallow clay banks meet rocky banks or deep water. This pattern should remain the same for the remainder of the the winter. If you would like a more up to date report or lake conditions, feel free to call me. Tight lines, Phil 606-271-2247

[DaveR]

JimDi, sent me a phone pic of a nice one he caught Friday, I don't know how to post it, but maybe he'll tell how he caught it.

[JimDi]

Here is the report.
Friday: We launched out of Jamestown and went straight to the Beaver Creek. We graphed fish and shad in the back. Put out four planers(15 to 20 feet w/1.5 oz sinker). Four free liner(swivel and hook) and two down liners at 25 feet. No hits. Tried until about 11:00am. Went in search of better area. Graphed back of Greasey and Wolf, no fish. Went back to Beaver put lines back out again, like above. Caugth one about 3:00pm and was about 7lbs. Fished for two more hours with no hits.

Saturday: Went back to Beaver and did the same as above until noon with no hits. Went to Indian and Otter, graphed no fish. Tried main lake outside of Indian because we graphed shad. Put out four down liners about 60 feet and no hits. End of day.

Sunday: cold rain. slept in and came home.

Fishin was slowwww... Water temp was cold in the back of Beaver(36 to 41 degrees). Lake had ice on it in back of Beaver and Greasey. Ice in Beaver was around the island. Had ice in Greasey about 2 miles past the water intake. Have never seen ice in those areas before.

Looking back on it we should have stayed in Beaver and just beat them to death. Fish were in Beaver around the boat ramp way in the back on the left before the island. Also should have tried bottom fishing. Never have tried that before. Does anyone know if you can do it with shiner??? Water was coldest I have ever seen it.

[peter]

Thanks very much for the detailed report. I've not fished down there much in the winter and the last time I went was mid Dec when there was a ton of fish and bait at the end of Greasy.

I have been wondering what the fish are doing. Probably won't go this weekend to find out after reading your report.

Thanks again.

[peter]

Lake Cumberland fishing report for Jan other, 2010. The water temp is 36 to 41 depending on the area of the lake. The head of the creeks have more ice than I have ever seen. The recent warm rain will help get the water back to normal temps soon hopefully. The stripers have cooled down obviously do to the cool water temps. As soon as the water warms back up to 42 to 45 they will turn back on. I normally look for the warmest water in the winter. If a warm rain comes I go directly to the head of the creek where shad will congregate and fish will follow. I am a big fan of casting bucktail jigs in the shallow water. I hand tie 1/2 ounce jigs and I normally put a 6 inch pearl trailer on them. If the fish are 10 to 30 feet deep I will take the trailer off and let the jig fall faster. I fish live bait most of the time while we are casting. I put a couple of planer boards close to the bank very shallow. If the fish are deeper than 10 feet I will not depend on casting as much and put out a full spread of 8 to 12 rods depending on my location in the creek. I have been fishing the Cumberland river more than anything lately. We have been having good luck on saugers, trout, and walleye. Last year in mid Feb the fishing was great. In early march the white bass fishing also improved. We had several days where we had great action on multiple species. It made for long spells at the fish cleaning table. I am use to 6 or 8 stripers not 50 plus multiple species fish. Hopefully this spring will be the same. If you would like to go give me a call I still have many dates open. God Bless and I hope to see you on the water.
Lance Sasser

[Duayne]

That water is too cold to expect much. At least you gave it the ole college try. Using shiners probably didn't help much. They get really picky at those temps with small being preferred.

Most avoid bottom fishing with shiners. Shiners look for cover on the bottom and will get you snagged more often than not. Shad/alewives try to swim up and that's what makes it such a deadly method.

The alternative for shiners is to rig up a three way with exactly one oz on the bottom. The leader for the bottom should be one ft and the leader for the presentation should be less than a foot. Don't troll with any more than two of these fished off the back (not the sides) and keep them straight up and down and on the bottom. Move SLOW SLOW SLOW. Fish the same areas as people bottom fish.

You can also slow jig spoons off the bottom in the same areas. This can be deadly this time of year once the water warms a tad after a cold freeze as there will probably be a die off and the stripers can't pass on bait that's dying due to the cold. The other side of it is, if there is a die off, competing with the real thing will make catching even harder..

[JimDi]

peter,
Even though fishing was slow, we still had a good time. From the looks of what was on the graph you should have been knocking them dead.

Duayne,
Will try the three way next time we get down there and the fishing gets tough. The fish we actually did catch was on a planer board set at 22 feet deep. It hit when the boat was in about 21 feet of water. I suspect this fish came off the bottom.

Also, there were two guide boats in the back of Beaver and didn't see them get anything. With the lake being froze over at the big island in the back, I think there more fish above the ice, but we weren't in an ice breaker. I was trying to talk my brother into crashing through it, but he wouldn't go for it..

[peter]

One of my guides caught 5 yesterday (big fish 18 pounds) and 7 today (24 to 26 inch keepers). Live bait in 30 feet of water 16 feet deep.

[Duayne]

Did they get any of that warm ran on Sunday? That can change things in a hurry..

[JimDi]

That is great... looks like I will stick to my day job. How were they doing last Friday and Saturday, just curious??

There were two guide boats in the back of Beaver and didn't know how they were doing. We are looking at going back down at the end of February after the water warms up a little.