Cumberland River trip 11-13-04

Donnie and I once again made the trip to the Cumberland river. We left Springfield at 11pm on the 12th of November and drove straight to Barkley Dam in Kentucky, we needed to get Skipjack, it poured down rain on us the entire trip down but when we arrived at the dam the rain stopped and it was cold so we bundled up and headed down the hill for Skips.

During the day this is what Barkley Dam looks like, the gates are closed, as you can see the boats are up right under the gates.

This is the hydro area where we catch Skips using #6 Sabiki Rigs with 2 inch twister tails on them.

My first throw and I felt a slam to my surprise it was a Saugeye, then Donnie catches one, then I here Donnies drag start to sing.

A striper, we ended up catching only 8 Skips but they were huge, so we loaded back up and headed for the Cumberland River.

The day was cold and windy and Donnie had the hot ticket on these fish, Doc was nothing but his net man, I never leaned back on a fish. We were fishing a primary breakline in about 46 foot of water.

3# Blue

Then I netted this nice 26.4# Blue, this fish was long and thin

we really thought that it was going to top 40#

Then I netted this hog, 40# of solid mass unlike the 26 this fish was short

wide and solid.

Donnie with a 8# Blue

Donnie finished out the day with this 6# Blue

Day 2

A lot of fun no real big hogs but a lot of nice fish

My first fish of the weekend, 1# Blue

Doc 3# Blue there getting bigger

Donnie 6# Blue

Doc 4# Blue

Donnie 6# Blue

Donnie with a 17# Blue, for Day 2 this was our biggest fish

Day 3

Adam Foster joined us for day 3 but we couldn't put him on a fish.

Blue was pulled right out of those trees behind Donnie

4# Blue

Donnie wrestled another Blue 3# out of the trees

Still tight to the trees

Doc 3# Blue

Here's what a hook looks like when it's pulled from a tree with Powerpro line and leader.

Here's a Channelcat, Mother or Father had to be a Flathead as this is not a normal Channels head. Donnie 3#

River looking upriver, beautiful

Our set-up for the river

Docs rods and reels

Rods-Berkley E-Cats #4

Reels-Abu Garcia 6500 and a 7000

30# Big Game Florescent line with 50# leaders

Gamakatsu 8/0 Circle Hooks with 6 oz. lead

Donnie's rods and reels

Rods- Quantum Big cats

Reels-Quantum Big Iron

PowerPro 100# test with 100# Leaders

Gamakatsu 8/0 Circle Hooks with 6 oz. lead

Totals for the weekend

31 Fish total

19 Blues, 1 Channel  2 Saugeye's

1 Striper and 8 Skipjacks

Big Fish Donnie 40#

Total weight 171#

Average weight of the Catfish 8.55#

This was a trip that Donnie and I will remember for a long, long, time

Doc Lange