Quote Originally Posted by stripernut View Post
caught 34 bass before 9am this morning, 5 of the LMs were keepers, 2 were over 4 lb each. kept a limit of spots for the grill, 5 of those were over 15 , the 6th was 14.5. my best 5 went around 16lbs.
right now cumberland isnt so much a "pattern bite" as much as it is a specific location bite.

ive been catching fish on these spots since the lake was lowered, but not everyday. there are 3 things that these locations have; 1. a drop-off into a channel bend2.structure on the hump 3. bait. if the bait aint there the fish aint there.

i noticed someone above said they saw tons of shad, and then i read where they were throwing a "creature bait", match the hatch first, and if that doesnt work, then try something else.

there isnt anything wrong with cumberland, its the same or better than its ever been, but it aint easy, alot of time staring at the graph.

the magic number for bottom depth on 2 different underwater ridges seemed to be 20-21 feet, thats where most of the fish seemed to be holding.

best of luck, may your lines never be broken, and the jet-skis always be broken
I don't see the problem with Cumberland bass this time of year either. We were catching smallies right in with schools of stripers today. Fishing close to areas I usually have no problems with Smallies and Spots and saw smallies/spots working on their own. Fished with my dad and brother a few weeks back and had at least eight 2.5-4+ smallies. Prefished for a friends tourney last year in August and had what would be considered a bag in less than an hour, with a close to five pound kicker. Most on top and the rest were in areas where you'd expect craws and with craw type baits. But the huge issue most have is they either fish on top or off the bottom. If the top water conditions aren't right, you have to fish the layers because Cumberland smallmouth are very bait fish oriented. In those times, you have to fish baits that can fish ANY depth. Think about it.. We were fishing with bait 30-40 ft deep in 35-60 ft of water today catching doubles of stripers and smallies. Quality fish are there and quality fish are feeding. Give em what they want where they want it and you'll probably have a good day.