cumberland river stripes

[flymanaj 0]

What flies are best for Stripes on the Cumberland? What about leader sizes?

[Redwings1 0]

I would guess that Shad and shiner imitations would be the way to go. We used to have some posts about Cumberland on here that may be helpful. He has moved but I believe DAFACK01 used to be a Cumberland guy?

[dafack01 0]

I did move and yes I did use to fish Cumberland a lot. I was always too busy chasing Trout to really concentrate on Stripers but I did do a lot of research on them when I lived there. Firstly, remember these things about Stripers:

 

1. They love crappy weather. If it's 40 degrees outside, gray, overcast, and maybe drizzling and you think no fish would ever bite in this weather, THAT'S when you go Striper fishing. They love crappy weather. And low light.

 

2. They love current. I've heard the Striper fishing is slow right now. They're not running much water due to the dam work, so I think the lack of much current is messing with the Striper fishing. The dam work also might be making the water a bit too warm for them and it also might just be too low for them to be really comfortable, I'm not sure. The best fishing for them though is during the spring when a big push of fish come up from Tennessee. The current is also stronger during the spring since they're pulling water from the lake.

 

3. They love current breaks. Downed timber, eddy currents, heads of holes, etc... Especially downed timber.

 

Also remember that Kentucky stocks no Stripers in the river. All of the fish in there are migrators from Tennessee so there are no dinks, and few "schoolie" size Stripers in Cumberland River. If you catch one, it'll be a good fish. As a result, you could get away with an 8wt and fish with 6"-8" streamers and go fishing for monster Browns and have a reasonable chance at the occasional Striper, but you're much better off targeting Stripers with a 10wt, fast sinking line, very stout tippet, and monster 10"+ streamers that look like Skipjack or stocker Trout. Small Stripers and big Browns will not be shy about a streamer that long. Due to the current, timber, and big fish, you're better off with a 10wt but like I said you can get away with smaller streamers and an 8wt if you just don't have a 10wt.