Cumberland River Dam Repairs

[Zach Matthews]

Guys –

The Cumberland used to be the best brown trout fishery in the South (and that includes the White River). It was ridiculous in the mid-2000s. We didn’t know how good we had it. Then they discovered a leak in the Wolf Creek Dam, and nearly ten years of reconstruction projects followed.

That project is nearing completion and lake levels are expected to return to normal this summer. That in turn will re-extend the tailwater and create at least the foundations of the former environment that nurtured all those huge fish. We’re still probably 5-10 years away from returning to what it was before, but with miles of tailwater being returned to cold water, the next few years should be a trout growth bonanza.

In honor of the Cumberland’s pending rebound I am reprinting this article from Kentucky Afield magazine.

THE FIRE CRACKLED and threw shadows against the opposite bank as I methodically shot fly line into the dark water. With only myself for company, I focused on fishing. Strip. Strip. Pick it up, cast again. Strip. Strip. Nothing. Take a step to my right. Like a steelhead angler in the Pacific Northwest, I worked my way down the gravel bar, blind casting a huge streamer and covering every speck of water. To no avail.

It was October 2008, but a freak Indian Summer warm front had slid across Kentucky, dragging the isolated, rolling hills surrounding the Cumberland River near Burkesville right back into August. The rest of the party were already back at the fire, which we had built out of driftwood on a dry shoal mid-river, roasting hot dogs and s’mores. In another two hours we would give up and—using the fire like a lighthouse—slowly ease the boat back to the ramp. Two weeks later our friends would crow over the fine fishing they had, once the weather turned.

Your typical October on the Cumberland used to be nothing short of a bonanza.

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Has anyone been back up to the Cumberland recently? Care to give us a status update?

Zach

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