Cumberland Dam - 10.12.19

[fishballer06]

I got out Saturday and fished the Cumberland Dam (from the bank) for the first time since I was probably 6 or 7 years old. Needless to say, I pretty much went into it blind. The lake is currently being drawn down for the winter. I'm not quite sure what the normal pool is on this lake, but I'd guess it's down 4-7' right now.

I started around 8AM and it was overcast and it was sprinkling rain off and on for the first hour or two. It cleared up for about a half hour and then it got overcast again for the rest of the day. The air temperatures were in the mid 40's in the morning, and it got up to around 60 in the afternoon.

I started my day off at the north end of the lake where the lake begins with my trusty black buzzbait. The water at the upper end of the lake was semi-dirty, with only about 12-18" of visibility. In my first 15 or so casts, I had two fish come up and short strike my bait. I thought this was going to be the story of my day. After those two fish missed, it was GAME ON.

I kept throwing that buzzbait around the patches of weeds that were near the bank. I quickly learned that anywhere where there were rocks mixed in with the weeds was what was holding fish. I had knee high wading boots on, and there were crayfish and small baitfish everywhere in these areas. I caught 7 fish on the buzzbait in that beginning part of the lake while it rained off and on.

After a while, it cleared up some and the topwater bite had stopped. I continued working my way down the bank and I found areas where the bank was steeper and all rocks. I noticed that I could see schools of small bass cruising the banks slowly along the bottom, like they were looking for crayfish. So I picked up a 3/16oz finesse jig and started dragging it. This landed me two more fish. Then it started clouding back up, so I decided to run further down the lake towards the dam in search of more weeds/rocks.

I found a creek arm near the dam just like what I wanted. I caught one fish there, and I spooked a decent sized fish as well while walking the bank. One thing I noticed immediately at the lower end of the lake was the water clarity. There was about 4-5 feet of visibility. I then moved down to the actual dam of the upper lake, and noticed a rocky bank with weeds mixed in. Yet again, this spot provided me with two more fish on my buzzbait.

At this point, it was getting late in the day and I knew the wife would want me home, so I got in the car and decided to do a little loop around the reservoir to just check it out. After driving a little bit, I found a spot near the road on the lower lake that looked super weedy (near the lower lake boat ramp) so I stopped for 10 minutes. Sure enough, I caught one more bass on the buzzbait.

All in all, it was an amazing day on the water. I landed 13 fish, and missed two others. All of my fish were in that 12-15" range, so I never could quite get that big momma to bite. After those first two fish of the day short striked my buzzbait, every other fish absolutely demolished my bait. Each bite sounded like someone threw a rock in the water as the fish would explode on the bait. It was one of those exciting topwater days that you only get once every year or two. I'm still getting worked up just thinking about how much fun it was.

[Mike Cork]

Sounds like a great day of fishing and catching Thanks for the great report.

[Capt. BassinLou]

Sounds like a fun day of catching. Appreciate those pictures, that was pretty area you fished at. Thank you for sharing.

[fishballer06]

Appreciate those pictures, that was pretty area you fished at. Thank you for sharing.

The leaves are just starting to change here. Another week or two and everything is going to be bright yellow/red/orange. Then it will be really pretty.

[Lipripper]

Thanks for the report of a fun day out on the banks by the Cumberland Dam.

[zippyduck]

Great report and some day we will put the boat in there.