# Lake Cumberland



## Lundy

There is a group of us (5 boats) going to Cumberland in late March. We will be staying in the Jamestown Marina area and plan on fishing that area primarily, Greasy, Caney, Lilly, Pumpkin, Wolf.

I haven't been there in a long time. 

We will be searching for Crappie, smallmouth, stripers, not necessarily in that order. I assume the fish are in the creeks and somewhat shallow that time of year.

Anybody ever fish Cumberland that time of year that could offer any insight?

Thanks


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## Richman

Lundy, since you haven't been there in awhile, the first thing you will notice is that after the 8 year drawdown the lake is covered with literally tons of cover everywhere. What used to be barren mudflats 10 years ago, are now standing forests of 20 foot sycamore saplings. The only clean banks are bluff walls. A good search on Bing Maps will show you what to expect.

Stripes will be shallow and can be caught on an minnow imitation (jigs/cranks/jerks) or live bait behind a planer worked close to the banks midway to the back end of the main creek arms. IMO Lilly and Greasy are easiest to fish since theyre smaller. If you wanna invest in some new baits, Rapala slivers are a good search bait. Also note that the stripers do relate to this new cover just like a bass

Water temps are key for the bass. The flats in the backs of creeks can be 10 degrees warmer than the main lake. The largemouth population has exploded in the past few years with good quality fish available on same or similar baits and tactics as you fish in Ohio, (spinnerbaits, jigs, jerks.)

Crappie as you might guess have benefitted greatly from the new cover and 12-15 inch fish are in good supply. The problem catching is the abundance of cover gives them plenty of places to hide. Pick a small creek with plenty of sun and dip minnows, or a jig under a bobber around the new cover. Generally the last flat before the end of the creek is the best.

Smallies are all over the lake and are active in the bushes on secondary points headed into the main creek arms. Floating worms, senkos, and soft plastic shad imitators will work best around flooded willows.

To help cut search time for productive areas in the larger creeks, Id suggest tying on a jerkbait, put the trolling motor on high and covering water from midway to the back of the creek. The shad spawn should be underway with bait right on the banks all night till early a m..... the gamefish wont be far behind. You might be surprised at the number of big walleye right on the banks too, especially after dark.

Hope the weather and water is right for you. Enjoy


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## Lundy

Richman,

Thank you for that very detailed information!


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## ShakeDown

I'll be all over those night topwater stripers if I can't find em during the day


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## crappiedude

Can't say much about the other species but I think the crappie are doing okay down there. Last year was my 1st year back to Cumberland in probably 30 years. We dodged storms for part of our trip so we did a lot more running in/out than normal. Richman was pretty spot on in describing the cover down there. I attached a pick so you could see it for yourself before getting there. The cover is pretty much anywhere the water is less than 30' deep. We were there around the end of April.
I can't say if the fishing was good or bad since I don't have anything to compare it to but I think we're going back again this year. We may go end of March, early April, I'm not sure yet. All the cover seemed to hold fish but some places were definitely better than others.
Weedless jigs made fishing the cover pretty easy. Jigs and minnows seemed to work equally well but we did fish the minnows on weedless jig head to keep from hanging up as much.
I wouldn't say we killed the fish but we caught enough to make it interesting and want to come back. Considering we had no idea what we were doing, where we were or where we were going I felt pretty good about our results. If any of your group like blue gills we caught some nice gills too so there another option to consider.


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## Lundy

Thanks Crappiedude


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## afishinfool

Lundy, I'll be in that area around the same time..will probably fish Dale Hollow a day or 2 then hit Cumberland for a few days..this is a every spring trip for me but I usually fish DH exclusively but would like to hit Cumberland this year..if possible send me a pm.


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## rutty

ShakeDown said:


> I'll be all over those night topwater stripers if I can't find em during the day


I will be drunk at night, looking for the strippers also! Wait I mean stripers.............


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## sharp33

I agree with Crappiedude 100% . My wife and I went down last April 4 -8 and we did ok . Big fish but only maybe around 20 - 30 fish a day between the both of us . We fished acrossed from Conley Bottem Marina in White Oak and Falbaush Creeks . The last day we went to Fishing creek and did the best down from Lee's Ford Started with Roadrunners but it didn't take long for me to get tired of snagging and losing a $1 each time so we used cheap jigs and slip bobbers . I would certainly use weedless jigs next time . I made some out of bread ties this year. Lots of cover and I would think it should be really good this year. I'm gonna try and squeeze in a trip there this year but I'm not sure leaning toward Pickwick instead.


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## rutty

This trip is getting closer and closer. Getting my tackle ready is driving me nuts! I am ready to go now!


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## afishinfool

rutty said:


> This trip is getting closer and closer. Getting my tackle ready is driving me nuts! I am ready to go now!


Hahaha..I feel your pain!


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## ShakeDown

My son and I are amped!!


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## Tom 513

If all else fails at the lake You need to go down to the new Hatchery creek trout stream below the dam at Wolf creek hatchery, most of the stream is catch and release but the upper part is not and there are plenty of nice size rainbows if you have a trout stamp.


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## afishinfool

Amazing how slow a month is when you are wanting to go south to fish..geeze!


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## Popspastime

afishinfool said:


> Amazing how slow a month is when you are wanting to go south to fish..geeze!


I'm waiting as well, heading down first week of April as well for 7 - 10 days running and gunning the area, different lakes for a few days each, can't wait.


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## Lundy

We have 5 boats of guys confirmed for our trip in late March. It will be fun


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## afishinfool

Popspastime said:


> I'm waiting as well, heading down first week of April as well for 7 - 10 days running and gunning the area, different lakes for a few days each, can't wait.


Doing the same thing but just 2 lakes..Dale Hollow and Cumberland..Cumberland is questionable though..last year it was chocolate milk..I'll know if Im gonna fish it or not when I drive across Wolf Creek dam on way to Star Point...leaving Ohio Mar 22nd and will stay till money runs out.


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## Popspastime

afishinfool said:


> Doing the same will stay till money runs out.


My plan exactly


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## rutty

Lundy said:


> We have 5 boats of guys confirmed for our trip in late March. It will be fun


Looking forward to it now, it is getting close. Never fished the lake before so it should help with 4 other great boats/fisherman going to hopefully accelerate the learning curve of a new/big lake.


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## ShakeDown

Bring that bowling ball in the event the bite sucks


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## crappiedude

Make sure you guys post when you get back. Hopefully I make it there for a few days myself.


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## JCsHOOK

I will be fishing out of gator dock 2 in late April. I haven't been there since they raised the water level.


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## rutty

ShakeDown said:


> Bring that bowling ball in the event the bite sucks


That would be fun!


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## afishinfool

Not looking good for trip Mar. 22nd..weather and water clarity will be an issue.


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## Lundy

Is that a glass half empty forecast? 

A little far out to say weather will be an issue isn't it? I see on 23rd. High 68 low 45 chance of thunderstorms. I don't really trust anything that long range, do you

Water clarity, who knows, I sure don't


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## Popspastime

Thats 2 weeks away yet.


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## crappiedude

There is no way the water C-land is going to have water quality issues unless we have some really serious rain events (monsoons/hurricanes) in the next 2 weeks. Honestly I'm not sure that would have much effect.
I haven't seen a long range forecast but I sure wouldn't put any faith in it.
Yeah it sucks we have a cold front coming in this week but it's spring and that is a normal spring event. Cold fronts come and go in the spring, happens every year.
All the fish will still be there.


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## afishinfool

CL is muddy now..drove past it 2 days ago and I doubt very much it will clear any in next 10 days with the amounts of rain forecasted..rained over an inch here in Tenn last night..you all do what ya want just trying to give a heads up.


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## crappiedude

afishinfool said:


> CL is muddy now..drove past it 2 days ago


WOW...hard to believe that lake ever gets muddy. I'm not doubting you but were you way up the lake? Last year when I was there (down near the state park) the water was clear and it rained like crazy before we got there and we dodged storms the whole time we were there. I talked to one of the locals and he said it was rare for the lake to get muddy that far down the lake. After one of the storms went through we were kind of looking for any water with a little color to it and we never did see any. Seen a bunch of new water falls coming in to the lake and every one of them was clear too.


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## afishinfool

crappiedude said:


> WOW...hard to believe that lake ever gets muddy. I'm not doubting you but were you way up the lake? Last year when I was there (down near the state park) the water was clear and it rained like crazy before we got there and we dodged storms the whole time we were there. I talked to one of the locals and he said it was rare for the lake to get muddy that far down the lake. After one of the storms went through we were kind of looking for any water with a little color to it and we never did see any. Seen a bunch of new water falls coming in to the lake and every one of them was clear too.


I've seen that lake muddy numerous times..last year on the same weekend these guys are going it was chocolate milk at the dam..I'll be driving over dam Saturday so I'll post what I see...it was very stained coming across Rt.27 near Somerset this past Wed.


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## Bassnpro1

I usually have a hard time finding enough stained water to fish when I have been there. The only water clarity issues I have are it is always too clear and the fish stay deep. Find some stain in the water and the fish have been more catchable in my experience. I'll be there march 18. Hopefully it doesn't clear up.


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## afishinfool

Alright if you say so..haha
.goodluck.


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## afishinfool

So..I posted to this thread to give you a guys a heads up on conditions that I have found existing at CL as of today..believe me or not I really could not care less..good luck and good fishing.


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## crappiedude

afishinfool said:


> So..I posted to this thread to give you a guys a heads up on conditions


Hey I like it...I've only been down there recently 1 time. Keep it if ya would through at least the end of the month. I'd like to get down there for a few days if I could but it won't happen for sure for at least for a few weeks.


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## ShakeDown

Thanks for the heads up afishingfool. I've never fished it before, but have fished similar lakes religiously (dale hollow) and I'll run the lake to find stain. Chocolate milk however...yeah that's not what I wanna see. Reports I'm reading elsewhere, temps are good and water is dirty. Bass are on, stripers are big but slow.


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## Mean Morone

Just a little tip. The creeks will clear up before the main lake. The further you go back, the clearer the water.


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## deerfarmer

Please send waypoints in a pm. <-------------------------------------


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## crappiedude

One thing to keep in mind while you guys are down at Cumberland is that if conditions aren't to you liking at CL it looks to be a pretty easy drive to Green River Lake.
From what I've seen on the internet GRL is a pretty decent crappie lake.


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## allbraid

LakeCumberland.com

Live web cams at multiple locations around the lake, showing the water.


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## allbraid

Live cam at Conley bottom also


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## deerfarmer

Webcam picture from this morning at 8:54. Water doesn't look muddy and temp is below 30.


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## ShakeDown

Allbraid thanks for the link! I'll be glued to that until we leave, and right now it looks wonderful.


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## redhawk fisherman

On my way to Dale Hollow this weekend, I will cross over the Burnside area on 90. I will post a from the bridge report on here.


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## ShakeDown

Give em hell Dan! Glad to hear you still go down there. I haven't been in years, really since I switched my winters to ice fishing.


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## keithjpoole

We are thinking about heading down to Lake cumberland this weekend. Seen some guys on face book with some nice stripers and smallmouth today. Read some guys are trolling with shad back in the creeks also umbrella rigs.


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## rutty

I can't wait. I was born and raised on Grand Lake St. Mary's, I know how to fish dirty water.......lol I am hoping it is not chocolate milk but a little muddy and stained would be great. Get the water temps up a bit in that kind of water.


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## redhawk fisherman

Burnside area has decent color but not muddy.


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## allbraid

I have spent a week on Lake Cumberland every year for the past 19 years. It is a giant body of water with many feeder streams. I am not saying that it can not or does not muddy up......But just based on its shear size and acreage you have a better chance of finding a valley/creek that is not muddy or affected by rain. I have seen Otter Creek completely jammed with logs and debris being washed out of that valley due to a rain storm up stream. At the same time a few miles away Beaver Creek was clear as gin. Web cams are a wonderful thing for some cursory long distance scouting. Good luck guys on your trip, I'm sure you will have success.


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## deerfarmer

Here is Kentucky 2017 fishing regs.
http://www.ohiocrappie.com/1718fishboatguideentire.pdf
It appears Lake Cumberland has a 10 inch min and a 30 fish limit for crappie.


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## deerfarmer

52 this morning


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## Bassnpro1

I had 50-51 at burnside today. Water color was good. Pitman creek was muddy if you went back far enough. Fishing creek was clean. Bass bite was slow. I caught 14 including a 4.5lber, but it wasn't easy. It took all day. Jigs and crankbaits. Another friend of mine ended the day with only a dink.


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## homepiece

I was down there over the weekend as well. Drove through a monsoon to get there on Friday night. I spent much of the day on sat just fighting the wind. I was in fishing creek as well and the water had a little color but was pretty clear. I ended up catching a few bass, but it was tough fishing from a kayak with the wind.


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## afishinfool

Its time!


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## rutty

afishinfool said:


> Its time!


Yes it is. I am pumped and almost ready to go! Need to do a few things at work this morning and then on our way.


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## deerfarmer

Took a couple days but we found them today. We got 27 today and 21 were over a pound. Large one today was 1.80


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## 1more

Nice job, send some pics if you can.


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## deerfarmer




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## deerfarmer




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## ress

Dang those are nice!!!!!


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## deerfarmer




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## deerfarmer




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## afishinfool

Good job DF, I couldn't buy a bite today.


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## deerfarmer

And here is a picture of the fine road system in kentucky. This is how the gps directed one day. Yep right down the middle of a creek.


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## keithjpoole

We fished beaver creek sat 3/25.


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## Lundy

We fished Beaver also all day, did you see us?

Awesome fish!, How did you catch them?


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## keithjpoole

Lundy said:


> We fished Beaver also all day, did you see us?


We seen several boats. Even seen a few boats at the best Western where we stayed Friday night. Seen several lunds, few fiberglass Rangers, couple trackers.


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## keithjpoole

We trolled live bait all all day but for about 2hrs we casted for smallmouth. As soon as we got to our first spot at about 720am. I baited the hook and set 25ft and was just about to put the planner board on and the first one slammed it and we had our first fish on in the first 30 seconds of being in the water. We saw several others busting on the surface in the cover we was in. But we wasn't ready and didon't have any top water stuff tied on. We had a great day minus a little bit of wind we had to deal with. Very nice and helpfull people down there also.


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## Lundy

I think you might have recognized us.


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## keithjpoole

No. I definitely didn't see that boat. I would have recognize that one. We drove down on Friday night and left at 8pm sat. We are already planning our next trip in a week or two to go back. How did you guys do?


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## Lundy

We arrived on Thursday mid ay and checked into our hotel and headed to the lake. Light winds, temp in the 60's, we launched at Jamestown Marina around 1:30 and headed up Gresy Creek to see what we could find. Water was clear with 54 deg water. Troy caught a nice smallmouth 10 minutes into our trip and we though this might be easy but man were we wrong. It was a day after a cold front and we really struggled to catch much else for the next few hours, one little smallmouth and a spot so we left that creek and went to Lilly Creek. Lilly Creek was a lot different with a lot of big rock and great looking points, water was clear and 53-54 deg. We found some really nice spotted bass and smallmouth in that creek to finish out the day.

We launched at Jamestown again on Friday Morning and headed to Lilly to find the wind was stronger and the fish were much harder to come by. Deerfarmer called us and told us he was doing well on crappie at Burnside so we gave it a shot and pulled the boat and went to see if we could find some active fish. We fished areas close to Steve and made one pass through his area and only caught a couple small largemouth, so we pulled the boat and headed back to Lilly to see if we could get the bass fired up again. We ended up catching quite a few bass late that evening in Lilly.

Friday evening a few of the guys, Chopiq, Rutty, said they were going to Beaver Creek on Saturday and we decided to give it a shot also to try and learn some other areas of the lake and maybe try to hide from some of the forecasted strong south winds.. It was an hr drive all the way around the Lake to get to Beaver Creek Marina. We launched around 7 and headed up the creek to an area Josh had picked out looking at the maps. We started catching smallmouth and spots right away. There was a lot of life in that creek, lots of bait, birds diving, striper guides, fish were actively feeding. Water was clear in some areas and much more stained in others with temps from 57.5 - 59 in the morning. Rutty and Chopiq got into some nice crappie farther up the creek so we went farther up into the much more stained and shallow water. There were many locals also in that area fishing and catching nice crappie. The wind was brutal and the fish were being caught dipping the huge areas of brush. We did not bring any dipping equipment with us and trying it was not working well for us. We went to just throwing swims into the brush and letting it swing down and Josh and Troy started catching both largemouth and crappie. Bass were busting in all of the shallow water flats, it was fun. Rutty and Chopiq and crew caught most of their better crappie in the trees in 18-20 fow fishing 18-36" down, they caught some really nice crappie.

Late afternoon we went back down the creek and hit a couple of locations. Josh caught two really nice smallmouth on back to back casts on one of the locations.

Almost all of the fish came on swims, the new white J5 was hot on the both the smallmouth and spotted bass.

It was fun going and fishing a lake that I fished with my family many times a year 45 years ago. It was not a fast and furious fish catching trip. Lake Cumberland is huge and it each creek and area, even areas in the same creek each offer different opportunities and challenges. We felt like we did OK for going in blind. It is a beautiful lake and we learned a lot on this trip and hope to use some of that new knowledge on our next trip to Cumberland.


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## keithjpoole

Some really nice smallmouth! We talked to a guide that said he caught 20 smallmouth the day before by accident trolling. We didn't catch any unfortunately. Sounds like you guys had a great trip.


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## MDBuckeye

Looks like you guys had a blast. Nice work!


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## crappiedude

Great report and those are some nice fish. I hope we can make it down there again this year.


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## Lundy

I wish I had taken some pictures of the upper end of Beaver creek with all of the trees and brush, it was a jungle, but that is where the crappie were. I guess when the lake was down for so many years for the dam repair forests of cottonwoods 20-25 ft tall grew in many areas of the lake. It creates some unique fishing challenges for sure, you are constantly snagged in a lot of areas in the back of creeks, coves and along a lot of the shorelines. I thought Rutty was going to need a chainsaw to get out of a couple of places he ended up.


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## rutty

It was a great fishing trip, learned a lot that is for sure. I too wish I would have taken pictures of the brush I was fishing, but I was too busy being a bushwacker to get out of the Sh** after the wind took you in a direction you did not want to go. Once we figured out the bite, it was awesome fishing. The crappie were tight in the structure and it was hard to get to them with the wind. Our biggest was 1.80. Our top 7 fish weighed in at 11.99 respectable pounds from that area.


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## rutty




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## Big Joshy




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## jray

Man alive those spots are pretty fish great work guys


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## keithjpoole

Lake cumberland was good to us again this weekend. We caught alot of Kentucky bass and a few striper that was short along with a few keepers. Also 1 gar. Water temp was 57 in the morning and low 60s mid days. Water was very clear. We fished Beaver Creek again.


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## Lundy

Nice fish!!!

I wish I was back there again


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## keithjpoole

It's nice because we can make it a weekend trip. We found a house we can rent for $75 a night. So that helps.


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## Guest

Can I ask what you used for bait for the stripers?


keithjpoole said:


> Lake cumberland was good to us again this weekend. We caught alot of Kentucky bass and a few other striper that was shorts. Water temp was 57 in the morning and low 60s mid days. Water was very clear. We fished Beaver Creek again.
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## keithjpoole

D Barnhart said:


> Can I ask what you used for bait for the stripers?


Alewives.


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## Guest

keithjpoole said:


> Alewives.


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## Lundy

So, I am thinking about making this trip again this spring. Any of you that joined me last year want to go again?


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## ShakeDown

What dates you thinking Kim?


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## Lundy

Unsure, open to suggestions. I would think somewhere very late March, very early April. I want to catch a few of those stripers up Beaver this year.


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## Popspastime

I'll be home basing in Jamestown TN straight south of LC for 2 weeks of fishing from KY Lake to Watts Bar probably the first or second week of April depending on the weather. Probably can work out meeting you for a few days fishing up that way if you go in the same time frame. We fished the same 2 weeks down there and had a riot fishing those lakes.


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## afishinfool

Will be down same time again...either late March or early April..pretty much a annual thing for me.


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