Emergency Regulations Lake Cumberland-Striper

[Bass_King2007]

I would say that 95% of the bass caught in tournaments live.. Any bass fisherman that fishes tourneys and knows how to take care of fish while their in their livewell know that!!!

[apb]

Jbyrd

I have very little experience with Dale, so really cannot comment on that lake. As Geo noted, several other species in the lake that use the open water like Stripers do at Cumberland.

In all the years that I downrigged at Cumberland I never caught a bass. Yes, I catch smallies or LM from time to time striper fishing. In all cases it is when I am casting the banks or running planers close to shore. I think part of the trouble that bass fishermen are having on the lake right now is that with the lake levels down, and mostly stable, the bass have changed their habits some. Same reason that striper fishermen, myself included, are having troubles catching stripers in spring. One change to the lake is the increased numbers of Threadfin Shad in the lake. Threadfin will look for shoreline cover at night (where the bass can eat them) and then hit the open water at dawn (where the stripers eat them).

When I say that the stripers don't complete for the forage I mean that there are plenty of shad in the lake, therefore, plenty of forage for both species. No competition. Bass eat plenty of other things in the lake: sunfish, crappie, shad, alewifes, crayfish, lizards, other bass, etc. Stripers eat shad, period.

On the Norris study, NO bass showed up in the belly of a striper. Same deal for the other studies I have seen on this (Boone posted a link to a number of these). Conversely, striper fry do show up in the belly of bass (Smith Mtn Lake study). If you are really worried about the bass, stop fishing for them. ONE catch and release angler will kill more stripers in the lake in a year than ALL of the stripers in the lake.

Stripers travel in schools. During migration periods (fall) very large schools. They all feed at the same time and continue to feed until they are stuffed. They don't feed again until their stomachs are empty. They also travel in schools of the same age class. When you see those massive schools, you may be seeing a good portion of the population of that year class.

Andrew