New striper lake

[Duayne]

Stunted growth has very little to do with unequal fish classes. Stunting happens when there is an over population or not enough water volume per fish size in lakes/ponds/aquariums. It happens with bass when too many smaller fish reproduce to keep adding more and more small fish. Stripers are put and take managed. There is no way the smaller classes can over power the larger classes because there is little or no natural reproduction. The bait fish population will explode to disastrous proportions if stripers aren't there to help manage them as they are the only true open water fish in the lake. If we think the striper die off is bad, just let there Alewives explode to a point where the lake can't feed them and they go through a mass die off. The chain reaction would make Cumberland literally the dead sea.

The largemouth quality dropped in direct proportion with the continually reduced fertilization in Cumberland and nothing more. As trees and cover went away, so did the cover for largemouth and the fertilization. It had nothing at all to do with stripers in any way shape or form. Largemouth will make a short come back in Cumberland. I have bass fishing friends who had their best days ever on Cumberland largemouth fishing this spring and it will only get better. But when the lake is back to normal, the added cover and firtle water will once again vanish. The smallies will return to shallower water as hogs and the Ky's will be better than ever. And the stipers will be close by in open water.

[Jbyrd]

Stunted growth has very little to do with unequal fish classes. Stunting happens when there is an over population or not enough water volume per fish size in lakes/ponds/aquariums. It happens with bass when too many smaller fish reproduce to keep adding more and more small fish. Stripers are put and take managed. There is no way the smaller classes can over power the larger classes because there is little or no natural reproduction. The bait fish population will explode to disastrous proportions if stripers aren't there to help manage them as they are the only true open water fish in the lake. If we think the striper die off is bad, just let there Alewives explode to a point where the lake can't feed them and they go through a mass die off. The chain reaction would make Cumberland literally the dead sea.

The largemouth quality dropped in direct proportion with the continually reduced fertilization in Cumberland and nothing more. As trees and cover went away, so did the cover for largemouth and the fertilization. It had nothing at all to do with stripers in any way shape or form. Largemouth will make a short come back in Cumberland. I have bass fishing friends who had their best days ever on Cumberland largemouth fishing this spring and it will only get better. But when the lake is back to normal, the added cover and firtle water will once again vanish. The smallies will return to shallower water as hogs and the Ky's will be better than ever. And the stipers will be close by in open water.

One of the big problems now is not enough food . Just show up at any tournament and look at the quality of fish . THEY are starving.skinny snakey looking things . Last thurs I caught a large mouth that the inches where more than the ounces !!! YES OUNCES it was 16 inches long and weighed 15 ounces. The millions of stripers 15 -20 inches long are over competeing for the shad and it is showing in the bass. AS for your freinds doing so great this spring ,the weights at ALL the tournaments have been pitiful this spring. 7 -10 lbs winning events in april and may that is really bad. HECK that is why we started fishing laurel and found out what we had been missing........ LOL

[Duayne]

Lack of bait in Cumberland? WOW I haven't heard or seen anything along those lines. I saw large schools of gizzards last year in areas that LM would like and we netted some bass while casting for bait. So if the LM can't find em and I can??? The thread fins seem to be on the upswing and I can say I haven't seen as many Alewives around lights. But they moved to deeper water right away when the lake was dropped. With the lake dropped, the open water bait is hanging closer to the channels more. Maybe the bait is there but it isn't accesible to the bass.

Caught 7 nice smallies while casting for stripers while the water was up this spring. Caught some nice ones last year on top fishing over 30-40 ft of water. It's the only time I fished for them last year. Based on my very limited experience, smallies have moved off the brush covered banks to deeper water, but I may be wrong. Maybe quality bass are there but people aren't fishing for them at the right depths..