Cumberland River/GSP 07-05-14

[TNBronzeback]

Hit the water with bro early morning. With plans of fishing JPP at night for crappie we didnt want to be up early and baking all day.
We got into a good mixed bag of fish. Marked alot of fish and bait in the 16-21ft range in the first place and got into some passing schools of pretty nice crappies, they were crushing 3/4oz jigging blades, but nothing would touch the live shiners. In dirty water like that, its hard to beat the hard thump and vibration of the jigging blades. after the crappies moved on, there was some popping in the shallows behind the islands, we figured skipjacks so we tied on small jerkbaits....the water was about 3ft deep and you could see decent size flashes here and there...so we got to casting and right off the bat he hooked a nice fish, fought it, got it in and was a nice1-1/2-2lb largemouth, i looked down and a massive school of minnows of some kind were surrounding the boat, about 2-3" long...i mean THOUSANDS of them, they just kept passing around the shallows near the boat and you would see the flash as a bass would cut thru and nail a few of them. for the next 2 hours or so, we chased those bass in that shallow, 83-85+ degree water landing a bunch of fish. No big fish though but no "small" fish either which i found odd, all fish were in that 1-1/2-2lb size, like they all came out of the same mold. Not complaining, that was a riot. i was throwing my 2-bait A-Rig with pearl twisters. never got a double, but when you cast right into the school, you got hit, only other time i experienced that fishing was always with white bass, either on JPP or the Great Lakes. alot of fun. Just got lucky to see them fish busting the surface the way we did.
Marked alot of fish, seen quite a few busting the surface, but in the main river, aside from the cappies we couldnt really get into the fish aside from a few drums here and there in the general area of the steam plant.
from there we went further upriver in search of some frying pan fish.
with spinner rigs on hand we scanned the river for some possible walleye/sauger habitat, the water was cooler further up river with the generation kicked on low and the stones dumping further up, we found water as cold as the high 70's. we focused on 16-25 ft. of water with any kind of structure, humps, rocks, wood, ect. it was slow, but we did land 5 walleyes, with one being in the 4lb range, and 4 saugers, 16-21.5", lost 1 big sauger right at the boat, before i could get the net under it, that was a bigger sauger, that would have went 4lbs, if not a little more, i was bummed!. once we found some good structure, we worked it and worked it and worked it until we got bit with a combo of spinner rigs, blade baits and some home made combo bro came up with and it worked very well in the winter. if the current was stronger earlier in the day, i think we would have gotten better results, but by the time the heavier flow kicked in, we were ready to head back and gear up for JPP night crappies.
Got some pics, but bro has them on his phone, i will see if i can get them from him.
No fishing for me for a few weeks again...lousy work and adult responsibilities! LMAO

[MNfisher]

Sounds like a great day!


Mike

[agelesssone]

HEY HEY! Finally got'cha some walleyes! Congratulations on the wallies and saugers, great eating there. Kinda makes me a little envious....

[TNBronzeback]

Lol! Yeah i was happy with the catch no doubt. Next trip will be adjusted accordingly.
Just couldnt pinpoint any hot locations and i think that was due to lack of current....they could scatter and chase thier bait. We had to work for them for sure. The lack of current them fish wanted a super slow, methodical jig and they wouldnt touch the spinner if it was spinning super fast.....which can be a typical trait of walleyes...most of the time they want a slow spin on it....which is where color selection comes more into play.
But yeah, all in all a pretty successful trip....something to build on no doubt.

[Alphahawk]

Sounds like a good trip to me...no such thing as small fish.....just equipment that is too big...LOL.



Regards

[StriperFan]

I would definitely call that a success. Usually don't hear much sauger talk this time of year.

[TNBronzeback]

Originally Posted by StriperFan

I would definitely call that a success. Usually don't hear much sauger talk this time of year.

I always heard the same thing.
2 summers ago i went to the mouth of the stones river, it was august, stupid hot, mid day, sunny clear skies. No generation in the stones and just a trickle in the cumberland. I had a handful of 1/8th oz leadheads and some bobby garlands. Tossed in the stones and bounced it back across bottom....POP....got a small 12" walleye. Casted again.....POP....14"+/- walleye. For the next 30-45 minutes i caught or hooked a walleye every 4-5 casts! No big fish....all undersized, but they were schooled in there. By all walleye knowledge, those fish had no logical reason to be where they were...no immediate visible signs of bait from the bank....but from that trip, i decided to dedicate ALOT of my time to the river chasing walleyes and saugers. Ive fished ALOT of dead, structureless, fishless water to kinda pinpoint the few spots ive found thus far. Some are above the dam, some are below.
Being from michigan, ive spent hundreds and hundreds of hours on the Detroit and St. Claire rivers fishing walleyes using more methods than what would be believable but all seasons require a special approach but its made me a very productive jigger which is the most effective way to approach river fish. Case in point, with lack of current this weekend, the fish wanted a slow, low jig....not much action at all. With the spinners, they did not want it spinning fast, which in most cases, thats typical in non-current situations. Kick up the current and the spinning blade and fast rip jigging looks more natural like a dying shad kicking down river.
I know there were several BIG walleyes above the dam caught this past winter and i plan on boating some myself. Trial and error and lots of spent gas and sun burns! Lol

[agelesssone]

GPS coordinates on the large walleye catches, please?

OH, in a PM.

[StriperFan]

Originally Posted by TNBronzeback

I always heard the same thing.
2 summers ago i went to the mouth of the stones river, it was august, stupid hot, mid day, sunny clear skies. No generation in the stones and just a trickle in the cumberland. I had a handful of 1/8th oz leadheads and some bobby garlands. Tossed in the stones and bounced it back across bottom....POP....got a small 12" walleye. Casted again.....POP....14"+/- walleye. For the next 30-45 minutes i caught or hooked a walleye every 4-5 casts! No big fish....all undersized, but they were schooled in there. By all walleye knowledge, those fish had no logical reason to be where they were...no immediate visible signs of bait from the bank....but from that trip, i decided to dedicate ALOT of my time to the river chasing walleyes and saugers. Ive fished ALOT of dead, structureless, fishless water to kinda pinpoint the few spots ive found thus far. Some are above the dam, some are below.
Being from michigan, ive spent hundreds and hundreds of hours on the Detroit and St. Claire rivers fishing walleyes using more methods than what would be believable but all seasons require a special approach but its made me a very productive jigger which is the most effective way to approach river fish. Case in point, with lack of current this weekend, the fish wanted a slow, low jig....not much action at all. With the spinners, they did not want it spinning fast, which in most cases, thats typical in non-current situations. Kick up the current and the spinning blade and fast rip jigging looks more natural like a dying shad kicking down river.
I know there were several BIG walleyes above the dam caught this past winter and i plan on boating some myself. Trial and error and lots of spent gas and sun burns! Lol

They aren't always where we think they should be, on Tims Ford and Center Hill, walleyes can be found shallow feeding-close to deep water-on hot summer days. I've always used spinner rigs, with threadfin shad or worms in low current, and switch to a jig or bladebait in more current.

[TNBronzeback]

Yeah I surprised they were where they were no doubt. There are of course no written rules the fish need to follow...lol....sure would make it easier sometimes though.
I'm up in Denver, CO now so I swung into Cabelas and picked up a few more mouse traps I used to use in MI. Very similar to Cow Bells if anybody has any salmon/trout knowledge. I think they will be the ticket on the off color Cumberland. Time will tell!

[nomad60]

Nice report, as usual. Nice going on the walleye and sauger!