Cumberland smallmouth fishing

[Barry2780]

I agree once they leave the water up and we have a couple of good spawns it will be back! Also there is shad everywhere on cumberland right now just schools everywhere! Ive never seen so many in my life and i have been raised on cumberland i live 5 minutes from C! My opinion on the slot it wouldnt work on cumberland i dont think but hey its just my opinion. On the stripers i cant stand them! The largemouth is really hard to come by also anymore, the big ones have vanished!

[Bass_King2007]

The big thing that hurts cumberland is the stripers... doesnt matter how much of a slot limit you put on the smallies, or the water levels during spawn. smallmouth bed deep enough on cland that it doesnt hurt most of them,.... And boys you all think dale is the smallmouth lake ha ha go to laurel lake... i do believe that the next record book smallie will come out of laurel.. But on the other hand dale has trout, so does laurel... but both lakes are lacking stripers... thus they have good bass swimming everywhere!!

[kytournementkid]

Laurel is my home lake, 10 mins. I can testify that the smallies on laurel like i said earlier in this thread are thriving. I try not to talk about it too much because of the meat hunters. I have seen guys with two, yes 2 6 pound smallies in their livewell and take them home to eat. I know it's legal, I know it's their right but dadgone it erks me. Do you realize how long it takes a smallie to grow to that size.. Anyways the point i'm trying to make is it's the same strain of dna in Laurel as it is Dale. And, they dont have to compete with stripers or fear them.

[Barry2780]

I agree stripers is what hurts lake cumberland period! Its sad but its the truth! Bass fishing is getting harder every year!

[stripernut]

how are the stripers to blame?????

folks the stripers have been here since the late 60's, in fact they were bigger, healthier and ate alot more than their skinny puny descendants of today.

if the bass (namely smallmouth bass) fishing was ever any good on lake cumberland , and it has been from time to time.....well it has been good with the stripers swimming right along side the bass.

i would think a statement like "fish populations are cyclic PERIOD" would make more sense than blaming the stripers without ANY scientific data, studies or research to support such a statement.

with that said....i wish the daily creel limit was zero with a size limit of 1,000 inches. i love (obsessed with) those brown fish. and i too cringe when i see a striper guide, or weekend striper warrior com to the cleaning station with a 23 inch smallmouth. but i cringe just as bad when i see a tournament competitor jerk a big smallie off the nest in pumkin creek , thow it in the livewell and race to conelly bottom to the weigh in, have the chances for a successful spawn been jeopardized????? you bet.

p.s. i have been cleaning stripers for years and have never seen a smallmouth bass in the stomach of a striper.....i have seen gizzard shad that were big enough to fillet, skipjack that looked like state records, bluegill, crappie and an assort ment of everything in the lake.....except a smallmouth. so what do they do thats so bad to the smallmouth ???? bite em just to kill em and spit em out?

[Bass_King2007]

the state also stocks alot more stripers in cland that they did in the 60's stripers are a eating machine and eat their body weight and maybe more daily... its not that the stripers are eating the brownies, its that they are competition for food against the bass in cland.. laurel and dale the browns and largemouth are the top on the food chain and have no competition..

[thunderstorm]

I've striper fished for 13 years and I have never seen a bass of any species in one. 99 % Alewives & threadfins.

[stripernut]

the state also stocks alot more stripers in cland that they did in the 60's stripers are a eating machine and eat their body weight and maybe more daily... its not that the stripers are eating the brownies, its that they are competition for food against the bass in cland.. laurel and dale the browns and largemouth are the top on the food chain and have no competition..

if a bass is hungry in cumberland.....its his own fault, not the stripers.
there are more shad in that lake than there have ever been.
i dont ever remember having to open the cast net in the water and release everything in it because it is just simply too heavy to lift out of the water.


not buying into blaming the stripers....sorry, theres just not anything concrete to substaintiate the blame.

and while we're on the subject of stripers and guides.....the guides that allow customers to keep legal smallmouth are in fact keeping as many as they ever have, and bigger ones too.
so maybe its not a decline but the smallmouth have adapted to a different environment and most anglers have not

another thing that dale and l;aurel have in common is the fact that neither lake (to my knowledge, correct me if im wrong) has suffered the environmental impact that cumberland has.

[stripernut]

but i agree...everyone should keep on driving past cumberland
theres much better fishing in other lakes

[bassmaster]

but i agree...everyone should keep on driving past cumberland
theres much better fishing in other lakes

Now stripernut, I understand you wanting the peace and serenity of less boats on the lake but you're not gonna tell me that the fishing is good? Lot's of truth in what you are saying about the fish changing but anglers not. It's not the doom and gloom that some portray it to be. Without any scientific data to back it up, it's hard to blame it on the stripers...MAYBE the lake level but probably not the stripers. On a side note, I just got back from KY lake and caught quite a few fish but couldn't find the big ones. Was it because they were fewer fish....nope...several guys DID find some big ones. We just didn't adapt quick enough to the water being lower than normal for this time of year. Stll had a great time and I learned alot about ledge fishing (apparently not enough but that will come with time).
Later, good fishing and God Bless,
Tim

[mhall]

I have to agree with Jeff and Tim. Studies have shown and fishery biologist will tell you that Stripers eat shad 99 plus percent of the time.

If there was a forage bas depletion yes they would adapt to stay alive, but there is enough bait in Cumberland right now to supply TWO lakes...

[Tim_T]

the state also stocks alot more stripers in cland that they did in the 60's stripers are a eating machine and eat their body weight and maybe more daily... its not that the stripers are eating the brownies, its that they are competition for food against the bass in cland.. laurel and dale the browns and largemouth are the top on the food chain and have no competition..

Not sure where you got this information from, but the best I can tell they stock less now than they did in the 60's. According to what I have been able to find they stocked 10 per acre up until the 80's when they slowed it down to 7 per acre. Unless I have wrong information.

As for a reason, IMO it is mostly based on lake levels. There is a ton of forage in C-Land so I doubt that is the reason. I think a slot limit would help, but I don't think you will ever see Cumberland and Laurel be what Dale Hollow is. They have tried taking brood stock from Dale and using the off-spring at Cumberland and Laurel and that didn't really seem to have a huge effect. Some lakes are just better habitat for fish than others and Dale seems to have some missing ingredient that the other two are missing.