cumberland help

[stripernut]

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.

BINGO.....the fish im catching are suspended fish. Funny thing is they wont just go nuts on the first thing you drop down....but when you get the fiirst one to hit its on! Just like tje smallies youre catching in with the stripes, when there is competition they turn on. I cant drop a spoon on these fish brcause ican see the stripes mixed in with them and i kmow they will inhale the spoon, and since im not trolling i dont want to risk a striper fight blowing the school of bass out i drop something down that the stripes usually dont hit

[Duayne]

Yep, one way is to draw them out of the pack. A single smallie can be drawn up out of the pack where stripers will probably stay with the pack. In many cases, people are fishing off the wrong side of the boat. Usually, if my depth finder is reading less than 50 ft, I'm casting in too shallow. The key there is to be in 50 casting into 30. If conditions aren't right on top, switch to count down techniques and be systematic with it. Vertical is great and can work, but as Stripernut says, you'll probably turn the stripers on first. I'm not sure what patterns he is using and we may need to compare notes..


We also caught a very healthy 3+ pound large mouth a few weeks ago and I may need to focus on those guys soon. It's great to see some really healthy LM there again. It's not like the old days but it's much better than it has been for quite a long time.

I'm not saying you can't catch them on the bottom this time of year and you certainly can. Night time is a great time for them. I really don't know about the middle of the day when the Navy is running. I can't tell you about the last few hours before dark. I usually prefer a cocktail in my hand at that point. But for the first few hours of day until noon, they can be had at mid depths in almost any condition.

[mhall]

Duayne tha largeheads are making a very nice comeback at CLand. This Spring I caught a bunch and some real nice ones to. Had 7 in one morning with five being very nice, 19 and 20 incher's. All released to fight another day.

I should have been more specific with the original poster I guess, Bass can be caught on that lake year round including the Dog days of summer, but I just prefer to let the Navy have it during those months. Suspended fish can be tough to catch, but sometimes they turn, I've even seen jumps start in the heat of the day before when they really get keyed up. Looking forward to Fall fishing and nor FRYING like a piece of Mellwood bacon all day.....

[Duayne]

Duayne tha largeheads are making a very nice comeback at CLand. This Spring I caught a bunch and some real nice ones to. Had 7 in one morning with five being very nice, 19 and 20 incher's. All released to fight another day.

I should have been more specific with the original poster I guess, Bass can be caught on that lake year round including the Dog days of summer, but I just prefer to let the Navy have it during those months. Suspended fish can be tough to catch, but sometimes they turn, I've even seen jumps start in the heat of the day before when they really get keyed up. Looking forward to Fall fishing and nor FRYING like a piece of Mellwood bacon all day.....

I hear that, Mark. I'm usually anchored and on a noodle in a cove by the time the Navy wakes up..

[mhall]

Duayne the largeheads are making a very nice comeback at CLand. This Spring I caught a bunch and some real nice ones to. Had 7 in one morning with five being very nice, 19 and 20 incher's. All released to fight another day.

I should have been more specific with the original poster I guess, Bass can be caught on that lake year round including the Dog days of summer, but I just prefer to let the Navy have it during those months. Suspended fish can be tough to catch, but sometimes they turn, I've even seen jumps start in the heat of the day before when they really get keyed up. Looking forward to Fall fishing and nor FRYING like a piece of Mellwood bacon all day.....

[mhall]

Sorry for double post

[stripernut]

Yep, one way is to draw them out of the pack. A single smallie can be drawn up out of the pack where stripers will probably stay with the pack. In many cases, people are fishing off the wrong side of the boat. Usually, if my depth finder is reading less than 50 ft, I'm casting in too shallow. The key there is to be in 50 casting into 30. If conditions aren't right on top, switch to count down techniques and be systematic with it. Vertical is great and can work, but as Stripernut says, you'll probably turn the stripers on first. I'm not sure what patterns he is using and we may need to compare notes..


We also caught a very healthy 3+ pound large mouth a few weeks ago and I may need to focus on those guys soon. It's great to see some really healthy LM there again. It's not like the old days but it's much better than it has been for quite a long time.

I'm not saying you can't catch them on the bottom this time of year and you certainly can. Night time is a great time for them. I really don't know about the middle of the day when the Navy is running. I can't tell you about the last few hours before dark. I usually prefer a cocktail in my hand at that point. But for the first few hours of day until noon, they can be had at mid depths in almost any condition.

For at least the last three years the hotter the day, the brighter the sun....the better. Not yet this year, the schools stay a little less concentrated and a little less aggressive. And your right about the LM, as much as i love the brown fish, on the right day its hard to argue with the green ones lol

[stuck1]

Im not trying to move in on anyones honey hole, but could anyone point me towards a good area to start looking for these suspended fish? Or is it just pull up to a point and look on the graph? Im just now getting familiar with different areas of the lake, venturing to places I never fished. The other thing is, if you had to pick one bait to target these fish, what would it be. I saw a spoon in a previous post, but just curious as to what others are doing.

[stripernut]

im not trying to move in on anyones honey hole, but could anyone point me towards a good area to start looking for these suspended fish? Or is it just pull up to a point and look on the graph? Im just now getting familiar with different areas of the lake, venturing to places i never fished. The other thing is, if you had to pick one bait to target these fish, what would it be. I saw a spoon in a previous post, but just curious as to what others are doing.

alot more time staring at the graph than fishing, and it doesnt have to be a. Point really, the end of a flat where the channel sweeps in a lake bend . One place in particular ive been catching fish is a long rock wall that has a big underwater rock slide, it just so happens to be where the river channel makes a tight bend, 12 foot to 22 ft to 70 foot, right now they are suspended on the 20 foot shelf. I prefer to drop a tube on them, a spoon is going to stir up the stripers .....lol just ask forum member "kr" , they spend alot of time replacing straightened hooks on spoons. I like catching them as much as anybody, but i really enjoy looking for fish that arent obvious. Its alot of fun to figure them out, and they receive little or no pressure.

[Duayne]

I first pay attention to the river channel and look on the side it's closest to. It doesn't have to be right close to the shore, but closer and bends close by help a lot. What this does is create a lot more contour on the lake floor. I do look to points when targeting smallies, but have caught a ton of them bottom fishing gravel bluffs so bouncing spoons on gravel if fishing blind could get some bites. Pay attention to what the water flow has done to the shore and imagine what is going on under the water. If you look closely, many of the creeks or bays off the main lake have two distinctly different points. Not always, but many times. The point on the upper lake side is going to show more shale and will be much steeper. The point on the down lake side will be softer and have more gravel. This is because the flow takes material from one point, where its easy to move, and deposits it on the other, where it builds up. Now consider that its much easier for fish to herd bait into steeper banks and it gives you a really good idea where to look. Many of those bluffs before the steep points have bays. The steeper edges of those bays will have a pocket with a lot of depth change close to the shore. This makes an AWESOME ambush point as almost three sides are taken care of for the stripes and smallies. But if there is no bait close by, you might as well move on from even the best "looking" spot. I prefer top water if the conditions are right. It's nothing at all to draw a smallie from 30 ft down. Thin "spook" type baits if there is a ripple and a chug if its a light chop. I have a thin spook type bait that has a cup at the mouth to give off a little chug and it is usually deadly from calm up to a light light chop. If not on top, I like to use swim baits like sassy shads that I can count down. 3-4 inch, but since this was a mild winter with little smaller bait die off, a 2 inch might be the ticket. I've also done well with castmaster type spoons swam instead of jigged. Vertical jigging will work if you don't care what bites.

I'm putting this out there because I have several PMs from folks asking for more details. Just know I usually target stripers but haven't had much problems targeting smallies and spots when I try; do to what I learn from catching them by accident.

I haven't targeted Buckets in years but when I did, erratic stop and go cranks would draw a lot of attention close to cover in the creeks.

[fishincreek]

Awesome post, Duayne!

[stuck1]

Between stripernut and duayne, I think that is the most specific information Ive ever received. Last year I did really well on 2 different sets of rock slides in close to the same depth range. Ive hit both areas multiple times in the past 2 months to no avail. I guess they have just moved to a different set of slides for this year. I normally fish around the Jamestown/State park area. I don't care to run, but I just don't know the where to run to most of the time. I lucked in to both spots last year, but I guess I just need to do some more exploring. The one thing I have noticed is that the water seems to be slightly lower than it was last year (if Im remembering right) when I was fishing these spots. I don't know if thats the key, or just coincidence. Thanks for all the help, I didn't really mean to hi-jack the thread.