Rules for thee but not for me!!

[DAC244]

Ever spend much time on Cumberland...running joke is the Buckeye Navy is stationed at Cumberland. In warm weather you will see 20-30% of the license plates have Ohio tags. Does not bother me one bit. Come warm weather they can have that pond. They dump a ton of money into the area.

I would say there is very few who don’t know about the Buckeye Navy. But still they are just a visitor to the state I own a house on the St. John’s river that I spend 5 months a year at but to me I’m still just a visitor to the state of Florida.

[Les Young]

Sounds to me some people under the auspice of conservation are concerned about weighing short fish and at the same time are really wanting the size limit reduced for all which further depletes the resource. HMM.

Any you might be a little full of sh*t too. I don't see where anybody local said a thing about wanting the size limit reduced. I know of nobody that doesn't want it left at 18" for smallmouth & they want it the same way for tournaments that we do every day. The fact is fish & wildlife are a sell out to flw period because of the tourism bunch wanting it. I wish they would make largemouth 18" too & 15" for spots. And for the record since there is a highschool or college tournament almost every weekend with 200 to 300 boats make them do the 18" size limit too. I honestly don't think some of you all really have a clue how the insane pressure is taking a toll on cumberland. Some of us fish it at times & especially in winter & some of fish it all the time & fish it a lot. Believe me it's not the lake it use to be & especially since it started being saw on a national level constantly. Ask any middle to older aged local & see what they tell you. Those of you that fish it a few times a year can think what you want, but those of us that grew up on it & have fished it all of our lives know better. It's no different than guys on other lakes complaining about pressure on other lakes, but it's just that some lakes don't seem to be able to handle it as good as others. A good way to take care of that is to limit that pressure & not reduce the size limit that can possibly add to the mortality rate of those under sized mini smallmouth that are being weighed in by " The Best Pros In THe World" If it was Dale Hollow the locals would be raising h*ll & they'd be getting heard too.

[nightbasser]

Ever spend much time on Cumberland...running joke is the Buckeye Navy is stationed at Cumberland. In warm weather you will see 20-30% of the license plates have Ohio tags. Does not bother me one bit. Come warm weather they can have that pond. They dump a ton of money into the area.

The Buckeye navy can stay up north and us locals wouldnt have to endure that plague every summer!!! Tourism supports nothing much more than low paying jobs!!! The propaganda and BS are throwed out by politicians and a few wheels that reap the big reward while all us local people deal with the baggage...

[Les Young]

Ever spend much time on Cumberland...running joke is the Buckeye Navy is stationed at Cumberland. In warm weather you will see 20-30% of the license plates have Ohio tags. Does not bother me one bit. Come warm weather they can have that pond. They dump a ton of money into the area.

But you don't fish it in warm weather either do you Gene? We sure don't take the buckeye navy & their huge ocean going vessels as a joke. If Green which happens to be one of my favorite lakes had half of the insane boat traffic plus as many tournaments on it as Cumberland does we'd hear plenty of griping about it by the locals there too. Hopefully it never goes through what Cumberland does.

[JR19]

But you don't fish it in warm weather either do you Gene? We sure don't take the buckeye navy & their huge ocean going vessels as a joke. If Green which happens to be one of my favorite lakes had half of the insane boat traffic plus as many tournaments on it as Cumberland does we'd hear plenty of griping about it by the locals there too. Hopefully it never goes through what Cumberland does.

I only fish Cumberland a few times in the winter...come warm weather gin clear water and boats that throw wakes 3 ft tall are not very appealing to me.

Green does have a high volume of boat traffic on weekends. There is a reason why I chose my current work schedule. My choices are fish Monday and/or Tuesday or fish Friday and/or Saturday....I chose fish Monday and/or Tuesday to avoid as many people as I can because weekends on Green can be a madhouse. I guess its safe to say both lakes gets hammered on the weekend. Seems like I recall you saying you go nocturnal in the warm weather to avoid boat traffic. As for me I gave up a work schedule where I was off every Thursday, Friday and Saturday to avoid weekend boat traffic. I like my Sunday, Monday Tuesday off...I don't fish Sunday to avoid the crowds but I have it somewhat peaceful pending time of the year on Monday and Tuesday.

[Les Young]

Oh yes I go on the night shift pretty early in the year like as in early March if the water isn't really cold. I also know Green gets a lot of pleasure boat traffic, but it doesn't compare to Cumberland. Lots of pleasure boaters run late at night on Cumberland too hitting every piece of debris & not thinking twice about it. It's crazy when you hear them running & then wam they hit the floaters & come to a sudden stop& then take right back off hammering on down the lake like it no big deal when we'd be checking to see if we tore ours all to pieces. Of course when it's that bad on Cumberland i go as close to the area i'm fishing & barely get on plane if that's even possible. Usually when i start night fishing for striper in early spring the trash is so bad that i do a lot of idling.

[TrokarJigN]

One of my friends was fishing Cumberland early last week and a fisheries biologist told him the exemption on Smallmouth was made to help repopulate the upper end of the lake. He said more smallmouth are down towards the dam and they wanted to get more fish back up into the river area near Burnside, but if this were true you would think DNR would have said that in there emails referenced in the prior posts.

[Eagle Creek123]

I’m one of the Ohio group that loves to come down to Cumberland or up to St. Clair. Basically anything to get out of Ohio and actually have fun catching some fish. So please have mercy on us! I’m from Arizona, my job moved me here, I understand where you are coming from. The Arizona lakes get hammered by the California guys but worst is the crazy amount of California that come to just run and party. Check out spring break pictures on Havasu. I am glad the tournament was on Cumberland and at this time of year I believe the fish mortality will be really low. Also, every time I’ve run into Kentucky guys while fishing they have been awesome, friendly and helpful. I can’t wait to get back down there in a couple months!

[nightbasser]

The whole point is if the lake is 18 inch size limit... ITS 18 INCH SIZE LIMIT FOR EVERYONE!!

[Les Young]

The whole point is if the lake is 18 inch size limit... ITS 18 INCH SIZE LIMIT FOR EVERYONE!!

[barkleyhawggitter]

One of my friends was fishing Cumberland early last week and a fisheries biologist told him the exemption on Smallmouth was made to help repopulate the upper end of the lake. He said more smallmouth are down towards the dam and they wanted to get more fish back up into the river area near Burnside, but if this were true you would think DNR would have said that in there emails referenced in the prior posts.

They could repopulate it with 18 inch and larger smallmouth. They are so full of it. Maybe they should change the size limit if you reach some sort of hotel room and restaurant quota during the year. I say maybe a 1/4 inch off the size for each night you stay and an 1/8 inch for each steak you buy. That is their philosophy.

[Les Young]

They are so full of sh*t.

[ethand]

Ever spend much time on Cumberland...running joke is the Buckeye Navy is stationed at Cumberland. In warm weather you will see 20-30% of the license plates have Ohio tags. Does not bother me one bit. Come warm weather they can have that pond. They dump a ton of money into the area.

took the words right out of my mouth jr.some of the summer weekends you think you are in the state of ohio

[ethand]

The Buckeye navy can stay up north and us locals wouldnt have to endure that plague every summer!!! Tourism supports nothing much more than low paying jobs!!! The propaganda and BS are throwed out by politicians and a few wheels that reap the big reward while all us local people deal with the baggage...

i will have to admit that tourism supports nothing much more than low paying jobs,plus most of those are part time.the big time winners are the owners of these business.

[Les Young]

Judging by the boats they run I don’t think they’re jobs are paying to low.

[nightbasser]

i will have to admit that tourism supports nothing much more than low paying jobs,plus most of those are part time.the big time winners are the owners of these business.

yes and give kickbacks to their politician buddies while locals
have to put up with all the BS from and caused by tourists

[HH45cal]

Ok so it’s bad to have tourism, because low paying jobs and only the business owners profit- I’ll say this and I mean no offense by it- were it not for tourism somerset would be like Whitley city Albany etc just a spot on a road that’s slowly dying. No thanks

[barkleyhawggitter]

I would wager that the flw does not create any jobs in the lake Cumberland area.

[Les Young]

Ok so it’s bad to have tourism, because low paying jobs and only the business owners profit- I’ll say this and I mean no offense by it- were it not for tourism somerset would be like Whitley city Albany etc just a spot on a road that’s slowly dying. No thanks

I totally agree that tourism is what's made the lake cumberland area what it is, but the size limit reduction is still b*llshit just the same. Leave it 18" like we all that spend way more year round than a few pros do once a year. Lots seem to think the big boys are spending way more than the locals, but they seem to forget that we buy a license too not to mention food, drink, gas, lures, launch fees etc. year round. Pretty simple really treat everybody the same.

[Les Young]

I would wager that the flw does not create any jobs in the lake Cumberland area.

I'd agree with that.