“Striper Madness Year-Round on Lake Cumberland in Kentucky with Richard Holt and Mister Twister Lures”

Part 5: Stripers Down Deeper

Editor’s Note: Richard Holt of Russell Springs, Kentucky, owner of Striper Madness Guide Service on Lake Cumberland, has fished for land-locked saltwater-striped bass all year long for 25 years. He uses different techniques throughout the year, depending on the depths at which the stripers are holding, and the baitfish the stripers are eating. “Here at Cumberland Lake, we have a year-round fishery for stripers,” Holt reports.

Question: Richard, you’ve mentioned that from this time of year until Thanksgiving, you’ll be fishing for stripers in water depths of 50 to 90 feet. How will you do that?

Holt: We deep-water fish for stripers until the surface temperature rises to 50 degrees. Then we’ll move shallow, fishing the shoreline and under the birds. We use our electronics to find the stripers and use downriggers to catch the stripers. We fish chartreuse-colored Mister Twister Curly Tail Grubs and Mister Twister Sassy Shads because the chartreuse color is easier for the stripers to see down deep.

Question: What pound-test line do you use when you fish that deep?

Holt: We use 25-pound-test line and line counter reels with an 8-1/2- to a 9-foot trolling rod. The fish will be in really-big schools at this time of year, and many times if we have four or five rods out, every one of the rods will get a fish on it. These fish will weigh from 14 to 25 pounds. I’ve seen from 20 to 100 stripers in a school at this time of year – often so many stripers that the graph on the depth finder will black-out.

I like fishing at this time of year because the fish bite very aggressively. If we can get our Curly Tail Grubs and Sassy Shads in front of the fish, they will take the bait. Stripers coming from that depth fight really hard and build up lactic acid in their bodies, which reduces their survival rate when they’re released back into the water. So, when we find big schools like this, we try to get our limit and then leave the fish alone.

Question: Can you return to that same spot and find that same school of fish the next day?

Holt: No. Stripers are travelers. Oftentimes we’ll locate them within 1 mile of where we’ve found them before, but they won’t be like bass holding on the same stump where you’ve pinpointed them the previous day. Every morning at this time of year is different. When we get into our boat, the hunt’s on for the stripers.

Question: How do you decide where to look for the stripers?

Holt: Over the years, we’ve learned that stripers show-up at certain places at specific times of the year. To be a good striper guide on our lake, you have to know about the movement patterns of the bait as well as the movement patterns of the striper. We have three-different types of forage fish here – alewives, gizzard shad and threadfin shad. During the spring, when the fish are on the banks, they feed on gizzard shad. During the night-time bite, the stripers feed on alewives. In the mid-summer, when we’re pulling umbrella rigs, the fish are on a threadfin-shad bite. In the late fall of the year, the stripers are back feeding on alewives.

Too, the bait moves from shallow water to deep. Most of the time, our area has two threadfin shad hatches – a spring and a fall. We’ll have thousands of terns and seagulls come in during the winter, when the stripers start chasing bait to the surface. The birds start diving on the bait, and we’ll chase the birds and cast into those schools of baitfish. After the baits return to deep water, we search for another flock of birds diving on baitfish on the surface. When we fish under the birds, we fish the white-colored Sassy Shads and Curly Tail Grubs on the white-colored Mister Twister Striper Lightnin’ Jigs.

Question: When is the bird fishing the most productive?

Holt: Usually from Christmas until the first of February. If this area has an early cold front, and the birds come in around Thanksgiving, we’ll start bird fishing earlier.

For more information about Striper Madness Guide Service and how to fish with stripers at Lake Cumberland, visit www.stripermadness.com, or call 270-866-3660.