Lake Cumberland

[NitroCrappie101]

Has anyone been on lake Cumberland crappie fishing this year, have ye done any good and how to catch them down there, I just live about 30 mins away but I just got into to the crappie fishing this year and some people has said Cumberland crappie has been good last year

[dave the wave]

Last year was a whole different lake from this year. The lake is up 20 feet and they will hold it that way so all the good spots that everyone was fishing has now changed and there is so much bank cover that the fish are scattered. If we can get several days of warm weather then they will move to the banks and you can flip jigs or dip minnows in the flooded trees in the backs of Caney Creek and Wolf.

[NitroCrappie101]

I thought they wasn't raising the water down there because of the little darter minnow..and I talked to some guys last year and they said they killed the fish in fishing creek last year long line trolling

[CrappiePappy]

I thought they wasn't raising the water down there because of the little darter minnow..and I talked to some guys last year and they said they killed the fish in fishing creek last year long line trolling

Normal water level is 723
Current water level is 706
Water level during dam work was 680

The Duskytail Darter has reclaimed 5 miles of old habitat in the Big South Fork, and is an endangered species. KDFWR & the COE are trying to work out a plan to raise the water, but still have minimal impact on the endangered fish. Studies will be done this year, and it's likely that the original 723 water level will not be reached until next year .. if then.

There are members that have been fishing at Cumberland, and catching fish .... however, they aren't likely to put forth much (if any) information, seeing as how our next Fruit Jar Tournament is on Cumberland.

... cp

[NitroCrappie101]

Well I was gonna go try some tightlining up fishing creek when the weather breaks...think ill do any good

[dave the wave]

Even if you don't catch any it will still be good just being out there. This time last year the lake was 25 feet lower. Most of the crappie will be in the flooded trees along the bank.

[slabeye]

well, fishing creek would be your best chance of catching fish....dave is right it is like fishing a new lake now. been hard for me to catch numbers so far this year. more water means more places for the fish to hide..

[stratos87]

Let me tell you it is tough right now I killed them last year and this year can't even catch a fish, spent all day last Saturday on the water caught some nice gills and even several spotted bass but the crappie were a no show.

[CCcrappiejohn]

Ditto to both Slabeye and Stratos87 comments, made three trips to Cland this year and struck out on all three for crappie. Some nice BGs one trip and a really nice small mouth yesterday.

[NitroCrappie101]

Well lets hope when the weather warms up some more we can find more fish