Lake Cumberland Report-11-13-19
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.
