Cumberland River blues

[nomad60]

Man, today was another rough one. The bass were not biting today, at least not for us and we threw everything but the kitchen sink. We didn't see any baitfish either, or any fish chasing baitfish early on at first light. We caught some, but only one legal keeper, the rest were all under 15 inches. I think the water temp being 85-87 degrees has a lot to do with it (and the air temp was no help either) and they are out deep, stacked on the ledges and fishing deep in the summer is another obstacle I need to overcome.
http://www.landinglunkers.com/wp-con...7/IMG_1579.jpg

I have a question, those bluff walls in the pic I linked above, have any of you ever caught fish along structure like that (in a river, that is)? If it was me, I'd park off those bluffs and throw a senko or jig against the rocks and let it sink, or throw a spinnerbait or rattle trap/crankbait parallel to the bluff but the guy I was fishing with said that he's never caught bass off of the bluff walls and neither has anyone else he knows either. I know in a lake, I'd be all over those but maybe it's different in a river with some current? I honestly have no idea. I've always fished lakes or water that's barely moving so this river fishing is still a big mystery to me.
We also passed by tons of downed trees and it was killing me not to throw a jig into them but; his boat, his rules

I hope that one of these days I get this river fishing down or it's going to drive me nuts. But then, if and when I get my own boat, I won't just be fishing for bass either.

[CreekWalker]

I hit the river for a few hours today myself. Fished just up from Shelby Bottoms. I only landed 6 bass and 5 were tiny spotted bass caught off of shoreline rock/rip-rap on tube jigs. I caught one decent largemouth that was tight to a downed tree. Those tiny spots were tapping my tube like crazy they just didn't want to commit. This was my first time fishing the river other than right below the dam and I only covered a mile or two so I had no idea what to expect.

[thehick176]

Fish the bluffs! I repeat, fish the bluffs! A light jig is good but a spinnerbait paralleled to the bluff is deadly. One trick to that is that you have to wake it back. Meaning, reel it fast enough so the blades wake the surface. You will catch mostly Spots and Smallies and they will destroy your spinnerbait so take quite a few when u go. It's best when the water is calm and the bluff is shaded.

[nomad60]

Originally Posted by CreekWalker

I hit the river for a few hours today myself. Fished just up from Shelby Bottoms. I only landed 6 bass and 5 were tiny spotted bass caught off of shoreline rock/rip-rap on tube jigs. I caught one decent largemouth that was tight to a downed tree. Those tiny spots were tapping my tube like crazy they just didn't want to commit. This was my first time fishing the river other than right below the dam and I only covered a mile or two so I had no idea what to expect.

This was my 4th time out on a boat; the first two times, we fished Lick Creek and Bumpus Mills with a little time spent fishing the main river under the bridge by Dover where I was able to catch a few white bass on a rattle trap. The last two times we fished only the main river and I'm having a hard time trying to figure it out. Yesterday morning, right after first light, we saw a few big fish coming up to the surface and splashing but have no idea what they were. Every time I saw one near the boat, I threw a crankbait or rattle trap but no takers.

[nomad60]

Originally Posted by thehick176

Fish the bluffs! I repeat, fish the bluffs! A light jig is good but a spinnerbait paralleled to the bluff is deadly. One trick to that is that you have to wake it back. Meaning, reel it fast enough so the blades wake the surface. You will catch mostly Spots and Smallies and they will destroy your spinnerbait so take quite a few when u go. It's best when the water is calm and the bluff is shaded.

Thanks, I'll have to try that! If you don't mind me asking, what color spinnerbait works best out there on the river? Back in Korea, I used to have good luck with this color/blade combination so I still have a few of those in 3/8 and 1/2 oz.:


I do have other colors as well, like chartreuse, bluegill etc...

[Travis C.]

Originally Posted by thehick176

Fish the bluffs! I repeat, fish the bluffs! A light jig is good but a spinnerbait paralleled to the bluff is deadly. One trick to that is that you have to wake it back. Meaning, reel it fast enough so the blades wake the surface. You will catch mostly Spots and Smallies and they will destroy your spinnerbait so take quite a few when u go. It's best when the water is calm and the bluff is shaded.

That's fun stuff right there.

Be sure to fish transition zones too. You can tell where they are from whats going on above the water. Example would be the bank is mud then turns into rock, bluff to chunk rock and chunk rock to pea gravel so on so forth. Places like that hold fish in any type of water.

My favorite is a 1/4-3/4oz depending on current chartruse spinnerbait with a big blades or blade and a chartruse or white trailer. I like to slow roll mine. Reel it just fast enough to feel the blades thump then every 6-8 cranks let it fall back to the bottom and start cranking again.

[thehick176]

That exact lure but in chartruese/white with gold/silver blades works best for me. Get it as close to the bluff as possible and hold on tight!

[nomad60]

Good stuff, thanks a lot guys. It's going to take me a while to learn how to fish rivers and advice like this is most excellent.

I just went down and dug through my stuff, I do believe these should do...

http://www.landinglunkers.com/wp-con...7/IMG_1618.jpg

[Travis C.]

These are my favorite crankbaits for the river:


Bomber Model A in dark brown crawfish

Storm Wiggle Wart in Green Crayfish


Rebel Deep Wee-R in Brown Crawfish:




The Rebel is my all time favorite and it plain sucks they discontinued the line. It had a deep Tiny Wee R in the line and I still have some in the package from 1995. That one was a killer at 1 3/4" long dives to 10-12ft and a tight wiggle. I lost a many to big hawg smallies in the river.

[nomad60]

Maybe I've been using the wrong colors out there. Looks like you favor browns and greens; I've been throwing crankbaits and rattle traps in a sexy shad color.

[Travis C.]

Originally Posted by nomad60

Maybe I've been using the wrong colors out there. Looks like you favor browns and greens; I've been throwing crankbaits and rattle traps in a sexy shad color.

I am sure they eat shad in the river as well. But, I believe given the choice a bass (esp smallie) anywhere would eat a crayfish over shad 9/10 times. There are tons of crayfish in the river too so I prefer to imitate them.

Crank them down until you feel bottom then slow it down to a crawl while still hitting bottom. Pause every 3 or so turns to let it rise off the bottom a bit then crank it back down to give a fleeing motion. Crayfish don't scurry backwards long distances at a time. IF you are not feeling bottom your wasting your time with that crankbait and either go to a deeper running bait or move closer to the bank.

Another really good bait these days and place to fish it is this on a shakey head around the bridge supports. Make sure you fish against it the support.

Berkley Chiggercraw in green pumpkin or cinnamon. Try to fish which ever one of the two is closer to the color of the river that day.





3" is the size I use but the bigger one will work too. Fish this on the bluffs as well. The reason I use shaky instead of T-Rig is the loose sinker hangs up a lot and the shaky will stand it up more that the other.

[Travis C.]

Of course there are over a 100 ways to catch a fish Nomad.

Those are just the ways I have always fished the river.

[bd-]

Originally Posted by nomad60

Yesterday morning, right after first light, we saw a few big fish coming up to the surface and splashing but have no idea what they were. Every time I saw one near the boat, I threw a crankbait or rattle trap but no takers.

Probably buffalo. They will splash the surface some first thing in the morning. They won't bite a lure.

bd

[CreekWalker]

I went out again last night not far up from Opryland - did not catch as many dink spotted bass but did manage to catch a keeper smallmouth. The bites were fewer and farther between than they were over the weekend. Caught a couple tiny smallmouth messing around with a chatterbait else I was sticking to soft plastics.

[Buccaneer]

Travis & Creekwalker - Maybe a stupid question but what is your boat position fishing tight to the bluff walls down there? Are you pointed into the current running the baits with the current?