Fly and Gear ordering and delivery: We can get flies to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Please see the bottom of this column for ordering options.
We also have custom Perfect Fly selections in 3 different price ranges for this stream that come with or without fly boxes. They make excellent gifts. Click Here To Order or Call us at 800 594 4726 or email us at sales@perfectflystore.com.
Type of Stream
Tailwater
Species
Brown Trout (stocked)
Rainbow Trout (stocked)
(Holdover Trout)
Size
Large
Location
South Central Kentucky
Nearest Towns
Burkesville
Season
Year-round
Access:
Poor to Fair
Non-Resident License
State of Kentucky
Weather
National Weather Service
Water Release Schedule:
Wolf Creek Dam Cumberland River
Fly and Gear ordering and delivery: We can get flies to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Please see the bottom of this column for ordering options.
Seasons:
The fly-fishing season is year-round on the Cumberland River.
Winter:
It is possible to catch trout on the coldest days of the winter.
Spring:
Springtime is prime time on the Cumberland River
Summer:
The hot days of summer will produce fish if the right tactics are used.
Fall:
Autumn is a great time for fly fishing the Cumberland River and the best opportunity to catch a large brown trout.
Recommended Tackle & Gear
Fly Line:
5 or 6 weight
Leaders:
Dry fly: 9 & 12 ft., 5 or 6X, Nymphing:
71/2 ft., 3 or 4X, Streamers 0-2X
Tippets:
Dry fly: 5 or 6X, Nymphing: 3 or 4X,
Streamer 0-2X
Best Fly Rods:
Perfect Fly Superb Five or Ultimate Six
Fly Reels:
For 5/6 fly line
Fly Floatants and Misc Items:
Floatants, KISS Strike Indicators
Tools & Accessories:
Nippers, forceps, retractors, etc.
Fly and Gear ordering and delivery:
Email us at (sales@perfectflystore.com) with the dates you will be fishing and we will send you a list of our fly recommendations. We can get flies and gear to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Your can also call us at 800-594-4726 and we will help you decide what flies and gear to use. All orders are shipped free in the U.S. If under a $100 order requiring Priority mail is a charge of only $8.10. Orders over a $100 are shipped free via Priority Mail.
Copyright 2013 James Marsh
Cumberland River – Fly Fishing Report -April 30, 2024
As usual, good numbers of trout are still being caught in Hatchery Creek. The are running a lot of water in the river but it is okay for drift boat. Very good light green Midge, Blue-winged olive, Blue Quills, Little Black Caddis and little Brown Stonefly hatches are taking place and our pre-rigged in tandem midges, especially the light greens, are working good. We received two good reports from customers fishing it this past week.
Afternoon Water Temperature: 48 (downstream)
Clarity: clear
TVA Release Schedule at Wolf Creek
7 Day Weather Forecast: (click the link below for more detailed weather information)
Recommended Trout Flies:
Brown Sculpin and White Belly Sculpin and Articulated streamers, size 6/4
Black Matuka and Olive Matuka Sculpin, size 4/6
Blue-winged Olives: size 16, 18 nymph, emergers, duns and spinners
Aquatic Worms, size 12, pink, red, and others
Midges: Cream and Red (Blood) midges sizes 20/22, larva, pupa and adult. Our larva and pupa midge flies, pre-rigged in tandem, are very popular here. You can fish them under a strike indicator keeping the larva fly near the bottom. https://perfectflystore.com/product/pre-rigged-tandem-midge-larva-pupa-tippet
Blue Quills, nymphs, emergers, duns and spinners
Little Black Caddis: 18, pupa, adults
Little Brown Stoneflies: 12/14, nymphs, adults
Strategies, Techniques and Tips:
Be sure to check the TVA release schedule shown above. If no turbines are running, you can wade the stream. If one is running, you can float the stream.
Unless the flows are very high, and unless you know something is hatching, we still think the best strategy is to fish a tandem Midge rig under a small strike indicator with the midge lava as the bottom fly and the midge pupa as the top fly. Fish the adult midge only when you observe trout feeding on the surface.
Scuds will work well year-round.
Our Brown Sculpin, White Belly Sculpin & articulated streamers are great flies to use anytime. The Black Matuka and Olive Matuka Sculpin are good flies to use.
Fly Fishing The Cumberland River In Kentucky: The Cumberland Lake tailwater in South Central Kentucky near the Tennessee state line is a popular brown and rainbow trout fishing destination. Its water flows from the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Wolf Creek Dam. Lake Cumberland is a huge lake and one of the deepest lakes in the South. The water stays cool a long way downstream from Wolf Creek Dam. The river boast of seventy-five miles of good trout fishing. The Cumberland is a heavily stocked trout stream. Fly fishing the Cumberland River usually produces some good catches in terms of numbers and size. This is one tailwater where you must pay close attention to the water releases and levels. It changes drastically and within a very short time. The link on the left side of this page will take you to the schedule for releases.If you wade any part of the river, you should always pick out a target and watch it carefully for a change of the water level. If it starts to rise, get out of the stream. We suggest a wading staff as you will see in our gear section. It is possible to step off into a deep hole. I know because I have done it twice not paying attention. The staff will let you probe ahead. It would have done me little good because I would probably be watching the water at a distance and not be probing ahead.The rate of rising water flows on the Cumberland River is much slower than most tailwaters. It generally travels only about four miles an hour. This is such a long tailwater and such a slow rate of travel for the rising water that it could be rising at the dam and falling a few miles downstream. In other words, you can usually find a place to fish even when they are generating power running the turbines. If the flows are moderate or low and they begin to generate power, you have a long time to fish if your a few miles downstream. As with most any trout stream, trout are easier to catch on a dry fly during a hatch. More hatches occur in April and May than any other period of time but you can fish the Cumberland River year-round. The most important factor is the generation schedule. The water levels can rise a bunch, like a few feet when they are running water. There are four generators at the Wolf Creek dam and any number of them can be operating at any given time. In general, the lower the water level on the lake, the better the fly fishing is on the Cumberland.It’s without question that the best way to fish the river is from a drift boat. Although there’s a lot of water that can be waded on good generation schedules for wading, there are many areas of the water too deep to wade. Canoes, john boats and pontoon type drift boats can also be used. Something different about the Cumberland and many other tailwaters is the fact a motor can come in real handy. There’s places you can launch a boat and run upstream to drift across some of the better areas of water. Winfrey’s Ferry is just one of them. Another good reason a boat is generally preferred is due to the fact there are areas of the Cumberland River than runs for miles without any road access. It flows through some wild country in places as well as many private farms. Areas of water to wade are scarce. Most of the water that can be waded is found in the uppermost ten to fifteen miles of the tailwater. One of, if not the most preferred method of fishing, is streamer fishing. Not only do they allow you to cover a lot of water fast, they produce big fish. There’s a one trout per day regulation and it must be a minimum of 20 inches long. These regulations have resulted in the Cumberland River having a lot of big trout. Five pounders are common. Although most of the trout are holdovers, there’s some natural production. Don’t be surprised if you don’t hook a striper fishing streamers. There’s plenty of them in the river as well as trout. Although streamers generally account for the largest size trout, they don’t usually produce better than nymphs and other smaller subsurface flies. The Cumberland River is known as a nymphing stream. Nymphs produce the most trout. Midges are also very important. The Cumberland is unusual for a southern tailwater because it also has stonefies, including the Giant stoneflies. There’s also plenty of scuds and sowbugs. Dry fly fishing is at its best during the relatively few caddis and mayfly hatches. As with most any trout stream, terrestrial insects can be important during the late Summer and Fall. There’s much more information on this in our Hatches and Trout Flies section.
Fly Fishing Guide to the Cumberland River: The methods and strategies you use on the Cumberland River not only varies with the discharges but also the trout you want to target. This river is managed by the state of Kentucky as trophy trout water. There are a lot of large browns in the river. They may average as large as fourteen or fifteen inches. Drifting the river is by far the best method to use. The river discharges determine the methods and locations you should fish the stream. If the flows are too high, It can become impossible to fish it at times. This is a huge river and the population of the trout and the food supply varies greatly from the dam to as far as seventy-five miles downstream. The Cumberland is open and fished year round. Usually the months of April and May have the best hatches but the fishing is completely controlled by the generation schedules.Water flows around four or five miles per hour and even when they begin to run a good bit of water, you can often drive a few miles downstream and find suitable water to fish for a good amount of time. It doesn’t mean your day suddenly ends.Although the stream has a surprising number of aquatic insect the larger brown trout feed mostly on other foods. Sculpin, shad, and other baitfish represent the bulk of the diet but there is also a good population of crayfish and scuds in the river. There is several areas you can wade the Cumberland but the best way to fish the river is from a boat. Most of the places that provide wading opportunities are within the first ten to twelve miles below the dam. Even on low water levels, the big river is too deep to wade in many places. All types of boats are used on the river. Drift boats and even canoes are common. Many anglers use small aluminum boats. Having a motor is often an advantage. It allows you to fish water you otherwise may not be able to fish strictly drifting.Often the only way to fish the big river successfully seems to be when water is running. Drifting down the banks and casting to cover is a good way to hook one of the Cumberland’s big brown trout. You want get many strips on the fast water, and it requires a lot of plain work, but it’s often very productive. There is a lot of cover along the banks of the river and that’s where the big browns get to grab a bite to eat. Tree tops, stumps, and sunken logs are common.
Cumberland River Hatches and Trout Flies: Our information on aquatic insects is based on our stream samples of larvae and nymphs, not guess work. We base fly suggestions on imitating the most plentiful and most available insects and other foods at the particular time you are fishing. Unlike the generic fly shop trout flies, we have specific imitations of all the insects in the Cumberland River and in all stages of life that are applicable to fishing. If you want to fish better, more realistic trout flies, have a much higher degree of success, give us a call. We not only will help you with selections, you will learn why, after trying Perfect Flies, 92% of the thousands of our customers will use nothing else. 1-800-594-4726. The Cumberland Lake tailwater near the Tennessee state line is a popular brown and rainbow trout fishing destination. Its water flows from the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Wolf Creek Dam on Lake Cumberland. Although there are few mayfly hatches, you’ll find plenty of midges and black flies. If you want to consistently catch trout on the Cumberland River, make sure your prepared to fish the little flies that imitate the midge larvae, pupa and even the adults. The same goes for the black flies. They are very plentiful. We have Perfect Fly imitations of Black Fly larvae, pupae and adults. Unlike most tailwaters, the Cumberland River has less baitfish than most. There are some sculpin, shad and other forage fish but the river also has plenty of stripped bass and the shad don’t last long. Crayfish are plentiful and eaten by the larger trout regularly. Sowbugs and Scuds are also in the river and represent a good portion of the trout’s diet. The is a bi-brooded Blue-Winged Olive hatch that begins in the late Winter and last about a month and then another generation hatches in the Fall, usually in October. They can appear most anything from Fall until early Spring. Sulphurs are also present but they are not massive hatches by any means. There’s also some Pale Evening Duns called Sulphurs by the locals that are slightly larger than the sulphurs. These hatch from around the middle of May through June. Caddisflies are very plentiful. The Little Black Caddis, or Brachycentrus caddis, are plentiful. These hatch during the late Winter and early spring but the hatch is often affected by high water levels and discharges from the dam. Starting about the middle of April you will find some large Cinnamon Caddis hatches. Just following the first Cinnamon hatches will be the Little Sister Caddis. They are very plentiful and can last up to two months at different sections of the river. We have report of stoneflies in the Cumberland River but we have yet to verify that. We have only taken a few stream samples of aquatic insects but what we have done so far, failed to show any stonefly nymphs. At this point, we are unable to say whether they are present or not. Don’t forget your streamers. You’ll need them that imitate sculpin, baitfish including shad and crayfish. Often streamers are about your only choice. Most everything is determined by the amount of water being discharged and when its high, streamers are often the only choice that makes sense. We plan on doing some more stream samples and obtaining some more information about the food in this tailwater, so keep in touch.