 Latest water temperature: 82.8  F   surface (Harmon Creek) August 7th, 2008

 Latest water temperature: 83.1° F   surface (Main Lake) August 6th, 2008

 Latest water temperature: 82.6° F   surface (Falbush Creek) August 5th, 2008

 Current lake level is 681.22 feet.   

Greetings to my readers!  It has been two weeks since my last report.  I have been on the water virtually every day.  Life is good!  I hope the world finds you and your family doing well!  

 ACTIVITY / CURRENT REPORT

 Over the last 2 weeks the fishing has remained steady. We are not catching quite as many limits, as the fish are a bit more scattered and have moved deeper.  We are “hunting” them (more on that below)!  We all know that the type of red hot fishing we had been experiencing through June and July does not last forever.  This hot bite (again) was bound to slow some (at least temporarily). But we are still catching nice fish (just not quite as many). 

 As always, there is the occasional day or two in a row where the bite turns slow (or off).  It is generally weather related (like a big low pressure front).  If the bite is slow for you, don’t feel alone.  On slow days, I get calls from guides all around the lake on my cell phone asking if we are hitting them (because they are not hitting them either).  You just hang tough and keep fishing.  Always remain positive.  Remember, you are on one of the most beautiful bodies of water the Lord created.  Enjoy it!  Slow days can suddenly become “great memory making days” if you hit a school that suddenly turns on and every rod goes down!

You can never make a shot you do not take.  Stay after them!

On most days we are still catching some really nice fish (generally in the first few hours. but also again around noon when a second wave of hard bites occurs).  The deep water river channel bite is still where it is at.  The water in the river channel is more oxygenated (it is flowing under there!) and as the water temperature continues to heat up, this is where the big fish will be. Stay in the river channels and fish 40 to 60 feet deep near the mouths of major creeks.

Just check out some of the last 2 week’s catches below!

 

With the water temperature maintaining in the low 80 degree area, the surface Striper fishing with artificial lures is not as consistent.  We have however still been seeing some “massive” schools rip shad on the surface however, so be prepared just in case!  Watch for it with your field glasses.  Keep a Red Fin or Lucky Craft Pointer tied on, or a small jigging spoon as well as a ¾ ounce Cumberland Pro Jig or ½ ounce Cumberland Pro Little Pal and stay ready!  A good trick is to watch the gulls. If they are diving in a “Tornado” looking vortex, then you can bet the Stripers are under them driving the bait fish to the surface.  You may also catch a monster in the jumps, so have plenty of fresh line on your reel!

We are also still catching a few nice Smallmouth and some really nice Walleye!  We have had a very strong request for Walleye trips and now offer them as a standard package.  Please call or email me for details!

The summer pattern is still directly on schedule.  The water temperature is right where it is suppose to be (and so it the bite).

Always remember, where the shad run so do the Striper!  

You may have to hunt with your fish finder for a while. Do not be afraid to spend some time doing this before putting your lines out.  Pay close attention to your fish finder to watch for large schools of shad. Once you locate large schools of shad, the Stripers will be close by (even if you do not mark them).

One of the best ways to “hunt” for the roving schools of Stripers is to down rig for them and the down rig bite has now arrived! 

When I am downrigging, I am pulling Cumberland Pro “U 9” umbrella rigs and “Captain Jim Specials” staying in the river channels.  On the down riggers I am pulling Cumberland Pro ½ ounce white on white and chartreuse on chartreuse jigs, naturalized (rainbow trout colored) spoons and 6 inch pearl swim baits.  I am pulling between 2.4 to 3.3 mph on the GPS with triple stacked riggers between 25 to 65 feet deep. Call me or email me to learn about the new “Captain Jim Special” multi-lure down rig setup that is really producing!  You can order these great lures through StriperFun and purchase them with a nice discount!  These catch big Walleyes as well.

BASIC DOWNRIGGING TECHNIQUES

A downrigger is the most effective tool for precise, controlled-depth trolling at virtually any depth. A downrigger set-up consists of a strong base mounted to the boat transom (or other location near the back of a boat), onto which a spool of heavy (usually ultra thin metal) cable is attached. The cable is placed through the downrigger arm with a pulley system and descends straight down into the water below the boat. Heavy weights, called “cannon balls,” are attached to the cable to anchor it at a precise depth, determined by how much cable is released from the spool. There is a release attached to the cannonball by wire and your line attaches to the release.

CHOOSING YOUR DOWNRIGGER

When choosing your downrigger, remember that the boom length must be long enough to effectively clear your cable and lines from your prop while making tight turns. Other important features to consider are an accurate line counter, a good clutch/brake system, and if you are considering a manual downrigger some offer a 2 ft per crank option. This is an important feature when you are fishing deep.

Proper placement on your boat is crucial. Mount your downriggers as far to the stern of your boat as possible, allow room for basic operation, setting the release and clearing debris.

WEIGHTS

I have found that at speeds above 2.5 m.p.h. or depths below 100 feet, a 10 or 12 lb weight is a must (I prefer 15 pounds, but they are hard to find these days).

RELEASES

There are many different styles of releases on the market today. I highly recommend choosing a pinch type release. Releases are generally sold as light, medium or heavy. I prefer the medium release. If the release is too light it will release while you are letting down your presentation, if it is too heavy it won’t release properly when the fish is hooked. The ideal release will hold tight until the fish strikes and hooks itself, then release immediately when the fish begins to fight.

RODS & REELS

The downrigger does all of the work to get your presentation down to and hook the fish. You need to use really flexible rods and reels (preferably with line counters) with at least 20 pound test line. Another important feature I have found is a “line out” alarm/clicker. Engaging this feature prevents backlashes when you are lowering down your weight quickly to get it to your desired depth.

OPERATING YOUR DOWNRIGGER

With the boat moving forward at trolling speed, you put the line in the clip however, you let the lure go out behind the boat. Let out at least 150 feet for shallower applications or 100 feet for 40 feet deep or below. Then, attach your line to the clip and then lower your downrigger ball into the water to the desired depth.. Release the spool and let the weight go down and stop it at the desired depth. Be sure your clicker is on so you do not back lash your reel. Put your rod in the rod holder and tighten the line until the rod loads in a gentle arc. Be cautious, over tightening the line will cause a premature release and you will have to start the whole process again. IMPORTANT: To prevent tangles, never completely stop your boat while trolling with downriggers.

Once a fish strikes the lure, the line is jarred free from the clip, allowing the angler to fight the fish directly. Then, once you land the Striper, you reel the cannonball back up and redeploy the entire process.

Many downriggers can accommodate up to six individual lines, which gives anglers the ability to spread lures over a variety of depths, angles and distances. I prefer personally to only putting out 2 lines per down rigger. I say this, not because I do not want to “flood” the strike zone with lures but because too many lines will frequently “catch each other” underwater and foul. Then you are dragging around “fouled” lures and do not even know it. When you finally bring one of them up to check it and find all your lures together in a wad, it is aggravating to say the least. There is nothing worse that having all your lures all fouled up and caught together 60 feet below the boat and 150 feet behind it!

FISH FINDERS

Consider sonar to be essential equipment when downrigging. Sonar helps determine the depth at which the lure should be presented by identifying the depth at which fish are located.

MULTIPLE RODS (Stacking)

To fish two rods on one downrigger simply follow the same process as above. Stop your first rod when it reaches 10 feet down and add a second stacker release system. Let the line out on your second rod to the desired length behind your boat and attach it to the release. Release the spool and let both rods down to the desired depth. If you are a beginner, you may just want to put out one line per downrigger until you figure it all out and get comfortable.

As far as “where to troll”, get a good GPS - fish finder and follow the river channel. Again, the Stripers will go deep to corral shad on the river channel thermal cline on the main lake (80 to 90 feet deep) where the oxygen is better for them

If you are currently trolling deep with trolling weights, planer devices, or lead core line, you may seriously want to consider stepping up to downriggers.

If you want to stay with live bait, then read the following information.

THE CANYON WALL EFFECT

If I cannot find the Stripers on the points or “firing up” in the bay, a pattern/tactic I find very productive this time of year is to keep my planer boards much closer to the boat than normal as I fish sheer drop off walls where the larger creeks hit the main lake.  On such sheer drops offs, you can be in 60 to 80 feet or water when your boat is only 30 to 40 feet off of the shore.  Many times, the Striper schools will be on these sheer drop ledges as they have “corralled” shad schools up against the wall where they cannot escape so they can “rip” into them. 

It is certainly a site to see Stripers feeding heavy on the surface. 

However, understand clearly that this same type of “frenzied” feeding action can be occurring 30 to 40 feet deep right off the canyon wall and you would never know it!

Most major creeks have such walls within a mile or so of the main lake.  It is very important as you work to develop your “trophy Striper hunting skills” that you learn to read and understand the lake topographic maps and/or your GPS units so you can find the correct walls to fish.  The easiest way to learn is follow the channel banks to find the deepest walls.  

This is why I keep my boards (although still in a “classic” V pattern) close to the boat, so I can keep the boat closer to the canyon wall.  If the boards were further out, then I could not run the boat close to the wall because the outer boards would be hitting the bank and fowling/snagging. 

When you fish planer boards, you can develop a tendency to let the boards go “way out” from the boat.  In shallow water, this is a must.  But not when you are fishing 30 to 50 feet deep.

Keeping the boards close allows me to directly target the fish on the canyon wall with a greater concentration of live shad, many times producing multiple hook ups.  When I see a school appear under the boat on my 12 inch color Raymarine C120, I then stop the boat so the baits can “settle down” and drop into the feeding school.

You can just imagine what happens.  Whamo!

It is interesting to think about all the big Striper feeding action going on that you cannot see on the surface.  It makes me want to break out the rods and go hit them!  I generally find that this “canyon wall effect” is best the first few hours of the morning.  Once we are a couple of hours into daylight the schools will move out further and deeper.

I hope that makes sense.  If you have any questions call me.

The fish are now averaging about 12 pounds and are very fat and healthy!  On some days, you may not catch as many “numbers” of Stripers this time of year.  But you can catch some nice quality trophies.  Just stay focused!   If you get a big hit, be sure to let him run at least 5 to 7 seconds to get the bait hooked solid. 

If you catch a Striper less than 24 inches, try to keep it in the water, get the hook out of it and release it ASAP to give it the best chance to live (if you do not do this, the fish will likely die).

If you find a school, you may have to position the boat over them and try to stay on them. On a windy day, you may be better off not using planer boards, but rather just use all "down lines" as it is easier to stay positioned over top of the fish this way.

We also are jigging hammered spoons and Cumberland Pro hair jigs when these big “waves” of fish come through. 

I demonstrate these techniques on “Striper Fish like a Pro” Volume # 2. 

If you see a school of Stripers on the surface feeding, be sure to not run your boat directly into the school.  Come down off of plane at least 150 feet away then approach by trolling motor on high speed.  Be patient as well, do not throw until your lure can reach the edges of the school (that is mentally “hard” to do). 

Be respective of other boaters as well.  Unfortunately, you may not always get the same treatment.

The reality is that the fish usually will not stay up long.  However, check the time on your watch and stay in the general area.  My experience this time of year is that they re-surface every 6 to 8 minutes as they “herd” the large schools of shad to the surface (like any predators herd their pray).   Many times, I find that if I “run” over towards them when I see them come up, by the time I get there they are “back down”!  Then, when I look over, they are coming up “right where I just came from”!  This is a technique you just have to learn (to be at the right place at the right time).  Truthfully, sometimes it is just “luck”.  

If you do see fish feeding on the surface (watch with your binoculars as you are moving around), you can cast them:

 

1.     Large Cumberland Pro Lures “Little Pals” (just burn it as fast as you can)

 

2.     Large “hammered spoons” and painted spoons (I like the “Dangerous Dick” or the “Crocodile”). I fish these with a “herky – jerky” style fast (letting them then fall).

 

3.     Big “walking baits” (Zara Spooks – white bottom with a silver top), the “Sammy 100” from Lucky Craft (silver side – blue back) or the Smithwick “Devils Horse” (Silver shiner).  You “walk the dog” with these lures.

 

4.     Large “split back” minnows (I prefer the largest “Bomber Long A” – Silver with blue/black back) or the largest ‘Rattlin Rouge” by Smithwick (Clown color) or the old faithful 5 inch Cotton Cordell “Red Fin” (Silver – Blue back).  You fish these lures “stop and go” very fast. 

 

5.     And of course the old “standby” Cumberland Pro Striper Spinner jig with a white or chartreuse Cumberland Pro 6 inch Striper grub trailer

 

Striper fishing at its best!

 

StriperFun Guide Service now has (4) guides to serve your charter needs. We can handle large group and corporate outings!

 

If you want to catch Monster Stripers this summer, then you better book soon!  All of StriperFun’s guide boats are covered and heated as well, so come see us.  As always, all our guides are federally and State licensed and fully insured.

 

Being that it is summer time, we are booking heavy.  However, we still have some availability for weekend and weekday trips in August (but call soon). Come enjoy the terrific summer fishing! The prime September and October dates are booking up as well, so do not wait too long to lock in your weekend trip!

 

ATTENTION ALL LAKE CUMBERLAND STRIPER FISHERMEN!

 

StriperFun Guide Service is the Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Lake Cumberland area “exclusive dealer” for the Super Bait Tanks by Livewell Systems Inc.! 

 

To really hit the “monster” Stripers, you need to use the freshest live shad.  Not only can catching fresh shad be tough, keeping them alive used to be virtually impossible!  That is, until the invention of the Super Bait Tanks by Livewell Systems Inc!

 

These tanks are very popular and each tank is custom hand made using only the finest products.  Call me for details and special pricing (Striperfun clients get priority delivery on the waiting list)!

 

We are now into the mid summer season.  Spring has come and gone.  So has the summer solstice.  Thus, the days are getting shorter again as “twilight” rolls around just a little earlier now each night.  The fishing is breathtaking!  It is great to welcome in another new season, and exhilarating at the same time!  Count your blessings each day and live “in the moment”, not in the future.

 

Our life cycle welcomes in this pattern/ change again as we hunt these trophy fish!  It is time to tie your strongest line onto your stoutest rods and sharpen your hooks!  There are monster Stripers in Lake Cumberland and they are hungry!  I remain truly “pumped”!

 

Remember to “clean” the algae from your line after each deployment (and check for nicks in the line).

 

I have lots of great recipes on the striperfun.com website.  Click on to check it out!

 

If you want to see more photos of recent catches, including some huge stringers of large Stripers, go to the StriperFun website for this as well!

 

Stripers will sometimes eat their body weight in shad, then not eat for a day or so.  Some days, you may hit a school the day “after” it fed.  Be patient, you cannot slay them everyday (or at all times of the day).  Eventually, these schools will begin to yield large trophies! 

 

If you are going to fish live bait, only the freshest bait will work. The Stripers have a lot of bait to eat (millions of alewives and gizzard shad per square mile) and slow “worn out” bait does not work well (if at all).  Customers tell me all the time that the two main reasons they hire a guide is that we always have the freshest bait and we know where to go to catch the big ones!

 

StriperFun’s “how to” DVD series “Striper Fish like a Pro” instructional video “trilogy” is now complete!  This includes Volume # One “The Basics” (which covers a little bit of everything), Volume # Two “Enhanced Live Bait techniques” (everything live bait you can imagine plus “catching shad”) and Volume # 3 “Advanced Umbrella rigs” (which also includes how to rig your boat and how to read your electronics)!  You can buy Volume # One, Two or Three separately, or you can order all three “Striper Fish like a Pro” instructional videos packaged together in a “group discount” package.  You can click the link at the beginning of this report to go to the StriperFun website and get my email or just call me.  

 

On the website you can purchase any or all three of the DVDs directly on line via Google checkout! 

 

You will see some great action shots (and massive fish caught) and you can learn all the proven techniques we pros live by!  If you are a serious Striper fisherman, this will help you! Please read a recent testimonial from a DVD customer below:

 

Captain Jim,

 

A few weeks ago i talked my dad into buying your DVD set to try to get a better idea of how to pull planer boards with live bait for stripers. I watched the DVDs multiple times to make sure i didn't miss anything. We went out and bought some planer boards and other equipment for striper fishing and i decided to go out fishing yesterday (July 12th) to try out what I had learned from your DVDs. I took a friend out who had never been striper fishing before. My dad wasn't able to go because he had things to tend to back at the work place. We used shiners since we haven't been able to purchase the super bait tank system yet. We started deploying lines and before i even had all of them set out we already had a fish on! Finally after getting all the planer board lines out, i was setting the last down line at 40ft and it was almost yanked right out of my hands before i even put it in the rod holder. I landed the nice 10-12 pound fish and quoted your saying 'One in the box ready to go. We be fast and they be slow.' as i put the fish into the cooler. We fished for about 3 1/2 hours until a storm cut our trip short. We ended up with 9 fish that day with 3 nice keepers, the largest being about 13-15 pounds. We lost two nice fish that would have been keepers easily towards the end of the fishing trip, so we could have limited out easily. It's kind of hard to land two more fish pulling on the down lines when you are trying to unhook 2 fish that were landed just 30 seconds earlier.

Thanks alot Captain Jim for the great info in your DVDs and letting us in on your secrets. The lessons learned provided a great fishing trip yesterday and many more to come.

Thanks Again, Seth Latham

JIM STRADER RADIO SHOW

Be sure to listen in to the "Outdoors with Jim Strader" show that airs weekly on Sunday Evenings from 6-8 pm on 84 WHAS-AM, a 50,000 watt Clear Channel radio station in Louisville Kentucky (you can listen in on line!). Tune in and catch Captain Jim’s Lake Cumberland Striper Fishing Report on Sunday night to see how the prior week’s fishing went!

 “SPECIAL REPORT”

The following is a follow up to the Special Report regarding Lake Cumberland, a leak that was found near the dam (a couple of years back) and how the Corp is now dealing with it.

As the press release indicates (and as we lake people have known for years), Lake Cumberland has a leak near the dam and the COE is fix it. 

As I have taught fishing at the Louisville and Cincinnati Bass Pro Shops (thanks to all StriperFun clients and friends who came by to say hello!) and at other fishing locations, I got the same question / statement from literally hundreds of people. What people told me again and again was:

“I heard they drained Lake Cumberland”!

 

I politely told everyone that “No”, they did not drain the lake!

 

The bottom line is that, “No, the sky is not falling” (there is no great emergency)! 

Although the dam needs to be fixed and the water is and will be a little lower than winter pool for a while (they have lowered the lake slightly to 680 feet), there is be plenty of water!  Lake Cumberland is still larger than Dale Hollow by over 10,000 acres, larger than Norris Lake by about 5000 acres and is still be the third largest lake in Kentucky!  The fishing should remain steady (and good!).  When the Corp lowered the lake in the mid seventies for dam repair, the fishing was terrific and it is again!  

The overall consensus from the COE is that “The pool restrictions at 680 feet could be in place for 5-7 years”. 

From my 40 plus years coming to the lake, it has been my experience that this winter level (690) remains constant (many years) for 90 or so days between late November through mid February.  So, we are already accustomed to this lower water level for about a ¼ of the year as it is! 

Lowering the lake to 680 feet (ten feet less than winter normal) has had but negligible effect on boating and fishing.  There may be certain coves you are used to going into that you can no longer go into because they are too shallow, etc. 

What was affected, at least for a short while, was boat launching access to the lake.  However, the U.S. Corp of Engineers has now extended boat ramps to allow additional access to the lake at this lower level. 

The bottom line is that, for now, it will be business as usual at the Lake! 

StriperFun Guide Service will keep putting our clients on big fish and nothing will change.  In fact, we have less logs and trash in the water

Jim Dicken of Fishin.com has written an excellent editorial on the conditions at the dam that provides accurate and clear data, especially in light of the recent “media over hyping” that claimed Lake Cumberland was shortly being lowered to 650 feet.  Please click the link below to read his terrific report:

http://www.fishin.com/articles/jimdicken/LakeCumberlandfactandfiction.htm

I have attached new photos of the dam that were taken a few weeks ago, where you can see the work now progressing on the dam!

 

 

 

If you have any other ideas techniques or subjects you want me to write about, drop me a line!

 

I am many times asked “What are the advantages to hiring a guide”?   In essence, you hire a guide to utilize the guide’s many years of experience and lake knowledge, to learn new tactics and techniques to increase your chance of “landing the big one!” Guides use top of the line equipment and the freshest live bait.  Also, if you cannot afford your own boat, it is a very cost effective way for you or your group to fish (cost per fisherman).  Even professional fishermen hire guides to learn a lake and new techniques!

 

We hope to see you on the lake!  Good fishin!!