Photo by Tom Evans.

Because of planned drawdowns, getting onto Lake Cumberland this summer will be a good deal tougher than it was last year. So it’s a good time for area anglers to get the scoop on other nearby bass fisheries that they’ll likely want to try out instead of the big lake.

In the vicinity of Cumberland, fortunately, there are three good Bluegrass waters including Green River, Laurel and Wood Creek lakes. Each of them has something attractive to offer both those Cumberland fishing refugees as well as home-lake anglers during the heart of the bass-fishing season in the Bluegrass State.

As August arrives in Kentucky, a large percentage of the bass fishing anywhere in the state occurs at night. In the daytime, warm surface temperatures tend to drive bass deep, making them tougher to find and catch. But at night, when the daytime heat takes a few steps back, largemouth, smallmouth and Kentucky bass become more active and often move to cover closer to the surface.

If you haven’t tried after-hours fishing, give it a second thought or find a buddy who does. It may sound hokey to say, but the difference in July and August can be like night and day. During the normal summer weather pattern, the difference in bass feeding activity is that noticeable.

Anglers who can locate cover -- combined with baitfish on or near to that cover -- can do quite well in getting bass to take a lure. Sometimes you have to slow it down a little, and also refine your choices from how you did it back in the spring.

It’s worth missing a little sleep on lakes that are getting good marks right now. Kentucky fisheries managers note that three hotspots like Green River, Laurel and Wood Creek should fall into that category this summer.

So let’s take a look at these three reservoirs, see what’s there and how the bass fisheries compare, and the best ways to put the odds in your favor at these south-central Kentucky waterways this season.

Let’s start with the lake with the most water to fish.

GREEN RIVER LAKE
With just over 8,200 acres of surface space, Green River Lake gives anglers a lot of choices for bass fishing. In the throes of summer heat, bass tend to become less aggressive, spending most of their time in deeper water where oxygen is still sufficient.

They’ll suspend around cover during the day, down far enough to escape sunlight penetrating, and then move up to find baitfish at night, or when overcast conditions darken the shallower water areas.

Green River holds all three species of black bass. Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resource (KDFWR) biologists report that this year, fishermen can expect to catch higher-quality largemouths. Green River is one of a very few major Kentucky reservoirs that follows the statewide 12-inch minimum-size limit on largemouth and smallmouth bass.

The reason for the anticipated improvement in numbers of bucketmouths above 12 inches and up to 15 inches stems from the better-than-average spawn in 2004. In 2007, that group of bass will start to attain that magic 15-inch size, which will give the overall largemouth fishery a boost. Even though a 12-inch fish could be kept in the creel, many anglers are now geared to 15 inches or better as the measure of what qualifies as a quality bass.

If you hit Green River this summer, go in knowing you may come home with a better percentage of bigger fish than have been available over the last couple of years.