Hey Steve. Thanks for the fun read. Miss your reports on Ky. Lake. You left just in time. Still looking at Cumberland!!
Hey folks, I fished Lake Cumberland this past Wednesday. It was 11 degrees when I got up and a balmy 14 degrees when I unloaded my boat at about 9:00am. I had been catching fish the last couple of trips in about 6 to 8 ft of water, so that's where I started....but the fish did not cooperate. The water temp had dropped from about 60 degrees the previous week to a cool 47.5 when I started fishing. The water level had also dropped. Finally, about 10:30am I caught my first keeper. That fish came 3 ft deep on a jig. Thinking that the bright sunshine might be moving the fish up, I placed a small float about 2 ft above my jig and continued fishing. I ended the day at 3:30pm with a limit of 20 really good crappie. All in all I had caught 37 keepers, 4 small fish and three bass. I was fishing in one of the creeks off the main lake and noticed that as I moved further and further up the creek, the shad minnows became more and more plentiful. The last hour or so of fishing, I was catching good crappie about 15 to 18 inches deep in 4.5 ft of water. I know lots of people believe in fishing deep for crappie this time of year, and normally I would do the same. But this year, ever since July, I have been catching really quality crappie in C/Land fishing shallow in shallow water. That has continued from summer right thru the fall and now into this colder weather. I use to know an old man who fished the kentucky lake portion down around the Paris/ Big Sandy, TN area and caught a lot of good crappie and he never, ever fished deeper than 8 ft. In fact, most of his fish were caught (year round) in the 4 ft depth range. He said he always found crappie in shallow water. I really never believed it....that is, until this year.
Hey Steve. Thanks for the fun read. Miss your reports on Ky. Lake. You left just in time. Still looking at Cumberland!!
Life is Good !
2018 Kentucky & Tennessee Crappie Masters State Champs!
Sounds like a blast. Thanks for posting.
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Thanks for the report.
Yes, as a matter of fact, I do have a retirement plan...FISHING!
Thanks for the report.... and good info. I need to try fishing shallow more often, I'm always the guy out there deep
I found the same thing over the weekend. I went out Saturday and fished the main lake targeting brush piles in 15-20 FOW and did not catch any fish.
Went out Sunday and went back into a shallow creek and caught close to a limit in 6-8 FOW with fish ranging in depth from the bottom to as shallow as 12".