Lake Cumberland in Russell County, Kentucky, will be this week’s playing field for the second stop of the 2021 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series. After talking to locals as well as some college anglers who have already been on the water, I’m going to say that the college anglers are going to have a great time this week. The College Series visited Lake Cumberland in September of 2020 as the final stop of the season. That event was extremely tough, with a daily average of 13 pounds over three days winning the event. It took less than 9 pounds a day to make the Top 12 cut. This time around, Cumberland should be an entirely different fishery.
Cumberland, a 65,000-acre mountain reservoir, is a diverse fishery with many options for the anglers. The main summary I can give is there is a lower end with cleaner water and more smallmouth, a lot of big creeks where anglers can target any of the three species of bass, and the upper (river) end that generally has more stained water and is largemouth oriented, although it is still extremely steep with plenty of deep water. That being said, you could easily catch a 5-pound largemouth at the dam, or a 5-pound smallmouth way up the river. That’s part of what makes the lake so cool.
Most anglers will be able to find something they are comfortable with and due to it being a good time of year; a wide range of techniques should be successful. The main lake is made up of many bluff walls, steep rocky banks, both gravel and rocky points and an abundance of pockets. Creeks on Cumberland are pretty unique compared to other lakes. The banks are mostly steep, and once you get away from the bank, they have extremely deep water — sometimes over 100 feet deep. If you head all the way to the back of the creeks, they start to flatten out. Some of the creeks take 10 to 20 minutes to reach the back due to idle zones, so that is another factor the anglers will have to manage this week.
Currently, the lake is a little less than 1 foot above full pool, which should mean there will be plenty of shallow wood for the anglers to fish. Cumberland has a unique type of timber that is about halfway between the traditional standing timber like you would see on Toledo Bend and buck brush. It’s made up of small trees that grew when the lake stayed drawn down from 2007 to 2013 while the dam was being repaired. It will definitely be a factor for someone this week. There is a ton of it no matter where you go, and the fish I found in the fall when I was there related to it in pretty unique ways.
I spoke with Nick Ratliff and Lucas Harrison to get some local insight on this week’s event. Both are former College Series anglers who have spent plenty of time on Lake Cumberland. Ratliff and Harrison both said that the fishing should be great on the lake this week after what has been a very hit-or-miss spring so far, due to constant and drastic water level fluctuation. The water level finally settling down combined with the warming trend this week, as well as a full moon, should mean that bass of all species will head to spawn en masse.
Both anglers had extremely similar predictions about the tournament this week. They said it should take between 17 and 18 pounds a day over the two days of competition to take home the win, and that an average of 15 or 16 pounds a day should make a Top 10 finish. A high school tournament with over 100 boats this weekend took 16 pounds to win. The leaderboard should be very stacked in this week’s event if the fish do what they are supposed to do.
Successful baits and techniques for this week predicted by the two included swimbaits, some form of topwater, a floating worm, flipping, and a variety of finesse techniques. I am certain that “Uncle Ned” will shine this week. Sight fishing should be a very apparent option, but both said there will be prespawn and post spawn fish available as well. The lower end of the lake is where both anglers predicted the tournament will be won, but they did also say that some of the creeks in the upper end of the lake could produce good largemouth for a team who commits to that. Both also said that we will most likely see a mixed bag win, as there is no exemption for the 18” smallmouth size limit this week. That will make targeting smallmouth a lot riskier for the anglers.
I also spoke with one college angler who will be fishing the tournament this week and has already been out on the water, Logan Parks. He said he saw water temperatures ranging from 58 to 65 degrees, and caught a fair number of fish, but said the size was hard to come by. Judging from today, Parks said the 18” minimum on smallmouth will be a large deciding factor in the way teams decide to fish this week.
While I am no longer participating in these events, I can vouch for the fact that the college series anglers are stout, and someone is ALWAYS catching them. I think we will see good things from the college field this week. I am extremely excited to follow along! Competition days are April 30th and May 1st, take-off and weigh-in are both happening at Halcolmb’s landing, weigh-in will also be streamed on bassmaster.com starting at 2pm CT on both days of competition. Good luck to all of the college anglers this week!