Originally posted by: rizeye on 3/15/2006 11:10:08 AM

with that kind of luck why move?

Originally posted by: PA STRIPER HUNTER on 3/13/2006 6:37:29 AM

Planning a trip in April to fish for striper. We are staying at the Connely Bottom marina. Here's the big question, where do we catch fish, with what method and at what time?

Last year we fished out of Grider Hill and caught 76 stripers during the week stay. Moving to a new part of the lake this time and need to know as much information as we can get.

Thanks for your interest.

Life member NAFC. Tight lines and smooth sailing...............

Originally posted by: flypilot33 on 3/15/2006 5:04:44 PM

Yeah, I would go to the same places as last year. If 76 isn't enough in one week then I don't know what your looking for. Isn't the limit 2 per person per day?

Originally posted by: PA STRIPER HUNTER on 8/19/2006 4:40:53 AM

I forgot about this post. Here is the rest of the story. 3 boats went on this trip. 8 fishermen and lot's of tackle. We spent 3 days running all over the lake and river channels. Total catch 6 Stripers. We got our heads together, looked at the map and decided to fish the same area we did last year which meant we had to run the river for 18 miles (the spring rains had tons of trash floating), making dangerous, so we trailered our boats to the new location.
This was a good decision.
Went to the same area as last year near Grider Hill, used Slivers, Red-fins and Rapalas and ended the week with 102 Stripers caught and released. No monsters (largest 18#), and alot of fun.
Planning to return next year. Still hoping for the 30+ "monster".
"Tight lines and smooth sailing" to all.

Originally posted by: Frogfish on 10/14/2006 5:38:29 PM

Use live bait, and fish the tail races...I stayed by Cumberland lake (Land between the Lakes) for a day. Didn't fish, but saw some nice stripers being caught.

I've been fishing Lake Cumberland every spring since 1992 and we always stay at Grider Hill.  We've always concentrated our fishing between the dam and just above Beaver and Otter creeks.  Where we fish depends on the water temp and where we find the most shad. Sometimes we're on the main lake and sometimes we're as far back into the creeks as we can get. We typically go between the second week of April to the first week of May. Our preference is to fish from Dusk to Dawn, however, if the night bite is off, we'll use live bait and catfish for them on the main lake flats that are close to the channel. The past few years the average weight seems to be much better.  We've been catching a good many fish in the high 20's to mid-30's.  Last year one of our group got a 45 pounder, on a red fin, down near the dam. Dang thing looked more like an Old Hickory fish than a cumberland fish. It's belly was just huge. Grider got lots of pictures so I expect to see them next spring. We fish with a variety of lures, including: red fins, slivers, rapalas, soft jerkbaits, etc.  However, our favorite is the old 7" bango lure made by bagley. You can still get them but you have to special order them in bulk. I think the minimum order is something like 14 dozen but I'll have to check with my friends...it may only be 12 dozen. The last four years, one of my friends has been making bango replicas on his muzzleloader jig. We've been pounding them on the homade baits.  I doubt we'll bulk order any more from Bagley. We've found the best way to night fish is to parallel the bank.  You should see the sides of our boats after a week on the lake. They are scratched from front to back because we fish so close. The live bait fishing during the day is typcally on slowly slopping flats that are really close to the main channel or a steep drop off.  We catch them right in the middle of the day with the sun beating down in less than fifteen feet of water.  But we believe the key is there is always good structure close and deep water. We just use catfish rigs for the live bait: about a 1/2oz barrel sinker above a swivel and about an 18" leader and a circle hook just behind the shad's dorsal.

Good fishing!!! 

Hey Hakessm,

Thanks for the post.

I've just made reservations to go again this year, (4-19 to 4-25-08) and plan to stay at Grider Hill.  There will be 2 boats again with 6 fishing.  We hope we can find fish in the lower end of the lake.  We also fish all night using lures.  We haven't had much success during the daytime hours.

Our concern is the repair work on the dam and its affect on the fishing.  Hopefully this won't be a problem and the fish will bite.

Any tips will be appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

Tight lines and smooth sailng..............................