Whoa. The thought that the interstate that runs a few miles from my Frankfort home could lead not only to a new adventure – fly fishing is challenging enough in daylight – but also a “honey hole” for a prized gamefish was compelling. And I-64’s eastern terminus is Chesapeake Bay and Virginia Beach – precisely at Atlantic Avenue smack across from a Holiday Inn fronting the ocean. (Technically, it’s I-264 but that’s quibbling.)
Striper nirvana for Christmas beckoned. For background, they’re rich in history, one of the icons of recreational and commercial fishing. In colonial times, their sale was taxed to support public schools. It’s a boom and bust fishery. Their numbers fluctuate with pressure from commercial and casual fishing, pollution and government regulation, among other factors.
Stripers took on a whole new dimension nearly a half century ago when biologists discovered they could not only survive in fresh water, but thrive. Thus today, they’re worth millions to Kentucky’s Lake Cumberland economy because that fishery has become one of the nation’s better freshwater destinations for stripers – 40-pounders are not uncommon. All it took was one nationally-aired TV program of the Cumberland stripers and it became Kentucky’s hottest fish.
But long before that, stripers were providing one of nature’s most spectacular scenes. That’s the fall migration of stripers and other species from Maine south down the Atlantic coast to North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
It’s one of the world’s greatest wildlife migrations and it’s addicted millions of fishers in boats and with surf rods fascinated by stripers when they go on a feeding frenzy. The water literally boils as pods of stripers chase and trap schools of baitfish. They cut them to ribbons with viscous, slashing strikes. The striper feeding mass is sometimes so thick that the quality of a good fly is one made of materials that will slide easily off their backs and into the water where it can do some good.
It’s called a “blitz.” To find blitzing stripers, fishers look for birds circling to prey on the baitfish. Some enterprising entrepreneur could probably sell tickets to tourists to witness the whole scene. It’s that spectacular.
There was no blitz on the Chesapeake the night Pepper took me out to weave among the bridge pilings. The bay stripers are called “schoolies” and they hang around mostly year around as a sort of a side show to the main event. But there they were, under the bridges, at night, attracted to the baitfish which were attracted by the bridge lights. It’s the food chain thing.
Fly fishing is traditionally known as a gentle, serene pastime with cool mountain streams murmuring with flowing water. That was not at hand here. It lacked every element of serenity. The boat rocked and bounced to choppy waves and strong tidal currents. It was cold, three-layer clothing cold.
Pristine? Murmuring? Exhaust-belching heavy trucks roared a few feet overhead. Tires whined and slapped the pavement. Horns blared from motorists rushing in Christmas-shopping traffic.
We cast our 6, 7 and 8 weights tapered to 15-pound fluorocarbon sidearm because of the low ceiling. The key was keeping in sight the fly – in this case heavy Clousers. If you don’t know where your fly is hitting the water in relation to the stripers, you’re out of luck.  For practice, try throwing something lead-eyed 30 feet at a tea cup. At night. The other key is to keeping the boat in position around the bridge pilings for the casting, no easy task given the wind, cold, tidal current and poor visibility. Pepper’s better at the helm than he thinks.
So it was with the I-64 stripers. I caught more than I could count in the 18 to 21 inch range (they must be 18 to keep There’s no better testimony to a good time on the water with a fly rod than losing track of the numbers. They say the best time to go fishing is when you can because you never know when or where you’ll find it good. That made Christmas in the Chesapeake with its bridge stripers all the sweeter.

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Jacob Knight of Lexington holds a 6-pound striper caught on a 30-degree day on Lake Cumberland

A slight temperature variance can make a huge difference in February, according to Tim Tarter of Nancy Guide Service, who has been fishing for Lake Cumberland’s legendary stripers for as long as the fish have been in the lake.
“We’re always looking for a little bit warmer water this time of year,” he said, noting that alewives and consequently the stripers will congregate in spots where the water is just a degreee or two warmer than other parts of the lake during February.
Often that means heading up the Cumberland River or up tributary creeks to parts of the lake less famous for their striper fishing than the lake’s open lower main body. These areas have more flats, which warm up just a bit on sunny February days, and the creeks bring warmer water into the lake after most February rainfalls.
These areas also produce some very large stripers, Tarter said, and they don’t get much fishing pressure, largely because access is somewhat limited up the lake.
Tarter looks for baitfish and stripers near the shoreline this time of year, more so than over open water. He often looks for fish over flats that stretch out toward creek or river channels.
Depending on how deep the baitfish are holding, he might locate them on his graph or spot clouds of baitfish from the surface in the usually clear water. Likely holding depths range from the surface down to about 30 feet this time of year, he said.
Tarter and his team of striper guides do the bulk of their fishing with live alewives during February, drifting slowly or slowly trolling through promising areas with the baitfish pulled behind planer boards. Slow presentations are critical during February, Tarter stressed, as are the right kind of baitfish.
“The stripers have so much forage in this lake that they can get extremely finicky,” he said.
The planer boards allow anglers to spread out their live-bait offerings, covering far more water at any given time. In addition, the boards allow for good bait presentations over very shallow water with the boat well away from the bank , where it won’t spook the fish. Stripers — especially big stripers — are extremely spooky fish that will shut down in an instant if anything doesn’t seem right.
Tarter sets his planer boards between 15 and 40 feet in front of his baits, adding no weight to the shortest lines, which are set up to fish very close to the surface. The 40-foot lines, which he adds just a little bit of weight to, will keep the baits about 30 feet deep during a very slow drift.
If drifting doesn’t produce as much action as Tarter believes it should, he often will turn to bottom fishing, especially if he has noticed baitfish and stripers right on the bottom on his graph. He will beach his boat on a gradually sloping bank that is near a channel and fan cast several lines, laying some almost parallel to the bank and some straight out into deeper water.
“Put the baits right on the bottom — just like catfishing,” Tarter said. “Sometimes we’ll get really good action fishing on the bottom when the stripers don’t want baits any other way.”
Tarter also said fisherman should overlook artificial lures early in the year. He pointed to ward doll flies as good picks and suggested addinga  twister-tail grub to each. Another very productive bait, he said, is a soft-plastic shad body on a leadhead. For either, he pointed toward 1/4 – or 3/8-ounce leadheads and bodies of 4 inches or less.
“The stripers are feeding on small baitfish this time of year,” he said, “so stick with smaller stuff.”
Tarter stressed that artificials should be worked slowly and steadily, with no pumping motion or other action added. The stripers won’t chase a bait that is moving quickly or erratically when the water is really cold. He also noted that most hits will be very light, comparing them to crappie hits.
When a fisherman sets the hook on a Lake Cumberland striper, however, it won’t take long to figure out that there is more than a crappie on the other end. Pound-for-pound, stripers rank among the strongest fish in fresh water, and few freshwater species in Kentuckys rivers and lakes are capable of putting on more pounds.
Lake Cumberland stripers average 10 pounds or more, and fish in the 20- to 40-pound range show up regularly. Kentucky’s state-record striper, which weighted 58 pounds 4 ounces, came from Lake Cumberland, and most long-time Cumberland anglers are convinced that there are 60-pound-plus fish in the lake.
The fishery is in great shape right now, according to Tarter, with an abundance of striped bass, including plenty of big fish, and loads of baitfish to keep the stripers fat and happy.

—Jeff Samsel

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