A Cumberland River Adventure!

**Jack Hise** · 08-09-2008, 04:16 AM

At the Michigan Fish-In I met aother "Displaced Yankee" (from NH) that now resides in KY.
Now, he needed a little help with his casting (to say the least) but we soon got him straightened out and went on to spend several days prospecting for trout. He even caught a few!
Well a couple of weeks ago I received an email asking about fishing the Cumberland River for a few days. He would bring his camping trailer down to the Wolf Creek Dam Camp Grounds and I could join him for a few days of trout fishing.
Understand that the Wolf Creek Dam is in danger of falling down but this only lent a bit of danger to the invite and made it impossible to turn down.
Being swept away by a 200 foot high wall of water, trees, mud, rocks, houses, etc. Just something lurking in the back of your head while you're reeling in an 18" Brown!
It was hot and humid! The release schedule for the Dam is impossible to decipher! (I think the Army Corp of Engineers uses a dart board!!)
The fishing was slow but the quality was very good.

Here's our own rst in action, a master with a net, playing the fish and bringing one to hand.
I had a difficult time getting him to understand that his 6 am. is my 5 am.! And that I don't do 5 am.!! Trout fishing is a civilized past time and that we were not unshaven, unbathed, beer swilling, worm flinging louts.....well at least not worm flingers!! He did give in to my time zone (after all we were fishing in it) and we set off at my 6:30 am. for a very good morning of fishing.

**J Castwell** · 08-09-2008, 05:06 AM

Hey JH,,, thanks for the report. Nice job and fun to see the pictures too. Looks like rst may make a flyfisher yet!

**rst** · 08-10-2008, 04:11 AM

Hey Jack glad to see you made it back to Tennessee. Great time down there behind the Damed Dam. I realized you had a hard time accepting that my 6 AM was your 5 AM, but everyone should know that I had just as had time accepting that your 12:30 AM was my 1:30 AM. But we made it through it just fine.

Hey you should know that Rudy (the KY Fish & Game Biologist) called me last night. In fact he was calling everyone he knows that fishes on the Cumberland. Said there was a phenomenon not seen on the river in it's entire history. For some reason fish of all species were coming out of the woods and squirming their way into the river. Said it started last Saturday and wanted to know if I had ever seen anything like this before, because no one in the F&G had seen it or knows what would cause it. I said no I had not but this one was an EASY answer! I told Rudy that Jack Hise left the Cumberland on Friday and during the week he was using flies he tied for use on a couple of rivers down in Tenn. I noticed some fish jumping up on to the bank when you started fishing, but didn't realize that they kept on going into the brush.

Thought I would post a few pictures of our trip for the folks to see.

And hey - you didn't mention that you caught a really nice Brown down river where Crocus Creek dumps in. What was that fish, 17 or 18 inches wasn't it?

The attached pictures are:
JH_1, JH_2, JH_3, JH_4, are pictures of JH on different sections of the Cumberland.
JH_fish_1, and JH_fish_2, are some of the trout that he hauled in.
JH_deer, is when Jack tried to lure in a deer so we would have some venison to go with the can of "beanie weenies" we were warming up.

(Just realized I can only upload 5 files. So will attach three more in an seperate e-mail next.)

And how could I forget the "Tenn_boot_repair" picture. Folks take a look at the way Fly Fishers from Tennessee repair a torn heel. That's my awning leg sticking in that boot. I laughed when I see that, but I'll be darned, I think it worked just fine.

Jack you're right on the money with the Army Corp of Engineers and how they determine when to release water. It HAS to be a dart board, and they must put blindfolds on when they throw the darts.

**rst** · 08-10-2008, 04:17 AM

The attached pictures are:

JH_fish_2, is another trout that he hauled in.

JH_deer, is when Jack tried to lure in a deer so we would have some venison to go with the can of "beanie weenies" we were warming up.

And how could I forget the "Tenn_boot_repair" picture. LOL!!!

**rons81** · 08-10-2008, 03:13 PM

Great report and nice pics. I missed the outing our local club had to the Cumberland and Obey rivers, last month. still have to get up there. Looks great.

**scubatim** · 08-11-2008, 01:38 AM

Great report guys and I am glad you had a good time and caught some respectable fish. BTW Jack that's one fancy hat on your head...... but what happened to your FAOL hat?