Cumberland River 06-04-2007 Long w/Pics

[Fishermansfly]

Well, I have to say I see the potential in this fishery! A hatchery on site, and plenty of extremely fat stockers! Good bottom (minus the didymo), excellent structure, and it appeared every bend in the water offers something different! We left around 9 am making the usually tour of stopping getting b-fast and getting gasola! On the highway by 10 am and off about our way to an unknown fishery on the Cumberland River. I had got some directions the day before but silly me forgot to print them off. Once we got into Albany, KY we stopped at what I think was Bob's Bait Shop and gas station. Well, lets just say dad asked prior to leaving if we needed any cash! I commented no I had the trusty Visa and I'd buy the fishing licenses on it! We are now in the store getting our pretty little KY fishing licenses and trout stamps and needless to say after she printed out my license I yank out the ol Visa. The ladies eyes got big and she said told me that I couldn't use my visa cash or check only! You could have heard a pin drop....No cash and no checks! Ughhhh....She finally decides to charge us some made up fee to cover her costs and off we are! By the way a day fishing license is $10.00 and an annual trout is $10.00. Wierd! Off we were!

We travel all the way to Wolf Creek Dam....By now I've realized we've went too far! No phone signal, Darn! We finally find signal and I dial the trusty 911....Which by the way they hate when it's a none emergency! Get directions and off we go! This neck of the woods is alot like Mon ROE County! Bass Ackwards, all the streets are labeled with route numbers! What evil genious came up with this idea! We finally find what were looking for and deploy gear decending to the water! Note to Bill: We strongly advise no one to park there vehicle on that road! Dad and I fished this section of water somewhere a few bends from the dam. While we are in the water a couple of "Real Nice Looking Fellows!" showed up. I think there purpose there was to see where we were at in relation to our vehicle! The first few guys stayed for about 10 minutes and continued to look at us. After they left dad looked at me and said "I think we've been had!" My thought exactly I replied to him! Within the next few minutes we here a couple of bikes traveling up and down the road and deside to pull up right about where dads suv's parked. At this point I look at dad and say "You think I should go check?" I ascend to the truck where there both about 3 feet from the back of our suv hiding behind it....Let's just say 2 of the three had mullets and looked as if they had those funny redneck teeth you buy in there mouth....The only difference here was they were actual teeth....I had a flash back of working in the county jail at this point! We got the heck out of there and headed for the **** but not before landing this guy!
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We finally wound up just below the dam around 100 yards when the wind picked up...Dad got frustrated and sat down and I picked up a few lil turds. The wind died, dad got back in the water, he made it half way accross the stream when the horn blew, back out of the water, and a look of total disgust!

We did get to talk to a nice local who told us of a sweet spot with a sand bar, a deep hole, and a good tail race. Off we went yet again.
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Dad netting a few after discovering that I had the honey hole the hole time! Man, there were some nice fish in that section but all of em were too far away and appeared to be flipping me the bird as they looked like mini submarines surfacing! I think I had the ticket for the day dropping a nymph 24'' off my dry. If I had it to do over again I would have went deeper with it and probably would have picked up some larger fish! Here's some nice pics of dad's catch out of the honey barrel!
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I love this pic! Simple but awesome!
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All day the fish appeared to be on bottom but willing to take anywhere there was food available! There were some surface takes but mostly subsurface until we reached our final destination were they were actively feeding in a trash line on the surface. Sparse hatches of sulfers all day and I saw a few midges around a size 24. We never really discovered what they were eating on but I think I had the ticket. I would have liked to have had another chance to fish it again dropping my nymph off my dry alot father! I had it at two feet but I think if I had had it another foot or two I would have landed some monster fish! As I said before I see alot of potential in this fishery! There were some fantastic spots to fish but you couldn't cast to them..A drift boat would have made a world of difference! So to Mr. Spey thanks for the suggestions and we truly appreciate the insight! I guess were gonna have to drop you some cashola and go back for a float!

All the fish were fat and well fed, and curious about anything you threw! Neat Fishery!
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[billyspey]

guys ; glad you found the river looks like you might have enjoyed it, great pictures, sorry about the locals they are every where ,out of state tags i guess. i use to fish a little stream in alabama.for smallmouth when ever i was down that way ,locals managed to place several marks on my truck. their way of saying welcome to our area . be happy to float you . going up wednesday myself.

[Fishermansfly]

I wish we were off Wed! No luck there....We did like the water but were both wondering y anyone would be crazy enought to lug there boat all the way up there. I guess if you start guiding that water you will be looking for a good storage facility! Don't think it's worth the trip to wade because you will be depressed when you see good fishing rising in the distance..The only other draw back was not being able to hang into a brown or two! I personally like a mix bag! Great fishery none the less and some time here soon we will have to give that a float with you!

Has this tailwater always fished this well? while we were at the **** we could tell that when they pump 4 generators it comes up at least 20'. I would think this would flood out some of the small guys. Have you ever visited the hatchery? I would imagine they don't normally stock fingerlings as they would be blown out with the first generation! I can only begin to dream about fishing while there pumping two generators with a streamer up against all of the downed trees along the bank! There are downed trees against every square inch of the bank! The guy we met at the dam said walley and crappie are easily brought to hand while there pumping four generators! I believe him especially with his accurate dipiction of where we last fished....Who ever he was a big thanks to him!

Had we been able to stay in the first spot you keyed us onto we would have both done real well.. They really turned on after a few hours of being there!

Thanks again for everything! Oh and I for got the tie on behind a tree factor! All I can say is wow! Two tailwaters and well, lot's of darn fish on one single little guy! Dad will tell you the story! He's got upset w me about it!

[billyspey]

fishermansfly; the cumberland is a great fishery i have spent about 7 yrs. fishing the upper 30 miles. what i believe that makes it so good, water guality, bug life,regs.and enforcement ,distance from major population area ,very limited access and a very long river with trout thru out. the cumberland has as many trout over 20 in as any river in the usa. i don't know any river that has better fishing than the cumberland. it can spoil you ,it has been fantastic at time and disapointing at others. it has lots or stripers, i was told of a guy trying to land a 17 in trout over the weekend and a big striper taking it away. i have fished it up to 3600 cfs and takin fish on nymphs and right now it's at 600 cfs. i have had this year fish on for a second when they flashed look like hub cap on a 60 model buick and i have witness. it can get under your skin and you will not want fish anywhere else. the clinch is about 20minutes from the house and the south holston is 2 hrs. why not go to the cumberland 2.5 hr's , by time i leave home and get back it takes about 14 hrs, and $125.in gas for truck and boat.