Cumberland River Fishing

[walkeraviator]

Anyone here ever float fished the Cumberland river below the Wolf Creek Dam to the state line??? I know this is popular for fly fisherman, but was wondering if it could be an ok destination to float fish for smallies???

[etcfishin]

Before they started work on the dam, it was too cold for smallmouth. But with the repairs and lower water level in the summer, the river temperature has been warmer. Just about every species of fish was caught last year. With the cold winter we had, it may have pushed the smallies back into the tribs where's it's warmer. I haven't heard very many reports on this board of a lot of smallmouth being caught down there, but there probably is some. Perhaps some other fisherman who fish around Burkesville and below might be able to comment. I usually fish closer to the dam.

[Bass Addict 170]

Before they started work on the dam, it was too cold for smallmouth. But with the repairs and lower water level in the summer, the river temperature has been warmer. Just about every species of fish was caught last year. With the cold winter we had, it may have pushed the smallies back into the tribs where's it's warmer. I haven't heard very many reports on this board of a lot of smallmouth being caught down there, but there probably is some. Perhaps some other fisherman who fish around Burkesville and below might be able to comment. I usually fish closer to the dam.

Some family members, including myself, have taken a few trips down to the CR via Burkesville. However, since the lake level change, and the temp change, the fishing has not been nearly as good. Have yet to catch a smallie (not saying it couldn't happen, but doubtful). Conditions may lead to smallmouth being more prevalent, but as of now it's not good.

[Olgrey]

I do not get to fish it often, but I caught some under size smallmouth in the Tompkinsville/Turkeyneck bend area by fishing riffles when the water was much lower last year. I was using a rapala minnow when it happened during July. It will take a while for it to get that low this year, if it ever does.

[walkeraviator]

I have heard that below teh dam is colder than above the Lake. Would fishing between the falls and the upper end of teh lake be a good smallmouth area???

[walkeraviator]

Also, do any of you guys ever fly fish??? I have been looking at giving it a try and may be taking a guided tour from somebody who can teach me how to cast and all that on the Cumberland below the dam...

[stripernut]

hey walker, 2 smallmouth in 40 yrs of floating the river, both were caught on live bait fishing for browns. dont know a thing about the falls area ....good luck

[Ritchie270]

I took a fly fishing drift trip a few weeks ago right before all the rain and it was a blast. We drifted from the first ramp just below the dam to the second ramp, and did that twice. We caught about 17 rainbows with the biggest being 16". Once they started running 2 generators, the fishing turned off. You want them to be running zero generators, however, one is fishable. Once they are running two or more, then it's just too fast to drift/fly fish unless you're using a sinking line with streamers.

Since the rain, they've been running 5 or more generators constantly, once they get the main lake level back to around 680/685 they'll back the flow off some.

You can check the generation schedule here: http://www.lakeinfo.tva.gov/htbin/la...H&DataType=All

and the prior generation history here: http://www.orn.usace.army.mil/hh/resplots/wol.gif

Each generator lets something like 3,600 cfm of water flow, so you can use the graph to estimate how much they've been running.