Lakes In Kentucky – 10 Lakes From Large to Small

Lakes In Kentucky – 10 Lakes From Large to Small

Kentucky houses more miles of running water than any other state in the US, except Alaska. Some of the country’s top lakes are in the Bluegrass state, including its namesake Kentucky Lake. Right next to it is the massive “Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area.”

From Lake Cumberland, the ninth-largest reservoir in the USA, to the laid-back, relaxing atmosphere of Taylorsville Lake, Kentucky has a whole range of lake options. There are even yearly Glasgow Highland games at Barren River Lake! If huge muskies are what you seek, Cave Run Lake or Green River Lake is for you.

Lake Barkley has the state record for yellow bass and Herrington Lake has yellow bass seasonally stocked. Nolin River Lake is where to find fantastic catfish and largemouth bass. Kentucky has some of the best lakes and fishing in the USA. The state’s lakes also provide full-service amenities and activities for the entire family. Look for golf to theaters to rentable houseboats and sandy swimming beaches.

Lake Cumberland

• Surface Area: 65,532 acres
• Max Depth: 197 Feet
• Camping/Overnight Available: Yes
• Boating/Docks Available: Yes
• Swimming Permitted: Yes
• Fishing Permitted: Yes
• Best For: Lake Cumberland State Resort Park, Striped Bass Fishing, Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery, Ninth Largest Reservoir In the USA

Lake Cumberland, the “Houseboat Capital of the World,” with the largest fleet of rental houseboats in the United States. It’s the ninth-largest reservoir in the country and best known for its trophy bass, trout and walleye fishing. The reservoir erected to fulfill flood control purposes and produce hydroelectric power became a prime fishing spot.

Anglers target striped bass the most. You will find other common fish types in these waters: largemouth, smallmouth, white and Kentucky bass, bluegill, crappie, rockfish, and walleye. Lake Cumberland is the state record holder for brown trout, rainbow trout, and walleye. Anglers can fish along the twelve hundred-mile shoreline from specific areas or by boats.

Lake Cumberland is a paradise for birds and birdwatchers. Hundreds of birds either seasonally migrate through or live in the area. Many bird species seen regularly at Lake Cumberland include red-tailed hawk, Cooper’s hawk, American kestrel, great horned owl, barred owl, screech owl, wood duck, green heron, great blue heron, belted kingfisher, mallard, goldfinches, eastern bluebirds, cardinals, wrens, tufted titmice, hummingbirds, pileated woodpeckers, wild turkey, and turkey hawk. Lake visitors can also explore the Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery, it’s a special experience!

Lake Barkley

• Surface Area: 57,820 acres
• Max Depth: 68 Feet
• Camping/Overnight Available: Yes
• Boating/Docks Available: Yes
• Swimming Permitted: Yes
• Fishing Permitted: Yes
• Best For: Popular Fishing Destination, Second-Largest Lake In Kentucky, Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, Record Yellow Bass, Channel Catfish & Crappie Fishing

Lake Barkley is the second largest lake in Kentucky. It is also a desired fishing destination prized for its bluegill, channel catfish, crappie, Kentucky bass, and largemouth bass. Lake Barkley together with Kentucky Lake makes up one of the greatest freshwater recreational complexes in the entire United States. Today, Lake Barkley sits where multiple towns of the past once stood. Sections of the Illinois Central Railroad alignment are still slightly seen.

Lake Barkley is a world-renowned freshwater fishing location, pulling the largest yellow bass ever recorded in Kentucky. Other fish known to swim the lake’s waters include sunfish, and shellcrackers. For more fun, there is a one hundred and seventy thousand-acre property between Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake called Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. The area provides several miles of hiking trails, multiple boat ramps, off-road areas for vehicles, and many campgrounds, group lodges, and cabins.

For visitors looking for an upscale, kicked-back lakecation, there are nearly ten resorts available at Lake Barkley. Plenty of primitive campsites for a more traditional outdoor experience. For birdwatchers, the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, the largest inland peninsula in the nation, provides home and shelter to many types of birds. Keep an eye out for the yellow-billed cuckoo, eastern wood-pewee, Acadian flycatcher, red-eyed vireo, black-and-white warbler, worm-eating warbler, ovenbird, summer tanager, and scarlet tanagers to name just a few. Hunting for deer is another popular activity with several types from archery to muzzleloading and even a youth hunting weekend!

Barren River Lake

• Surface Area: 10,100 acres
• Max Depth: 118 Feet
• Camping/Overnight Available: Yes
• Boating/Docks Available: Yes
• Swimming Permitted: Yes
• Fishing Permitted: Yes
• Best For: Crappie & Catfish Fishing, State Record Hybrid Striped Bass, Glasgow’s Highland Games, Mammoth Cave National Park

Barren River Lake, located in south-central Kentucky, firt created for flood control and prevention purposes. Today it still serves as flood control and also provides fishing, boating, hunting, and camping to locals and tourists. The lake sits in Barren River Lake State Resort Park, a thousand fifty-acre area with swimming beaches with lifeguards, four marinas, horseback riding, an eighteen-hole golf course, a fifty-one-room lodge, twenty-two cabins, a ninety-nine site campground, a restaurant, and a pub.

Anglers can utilize the one hundred and thirty-five miles of shoreline, ten boat ramps, and three fishing piers to land the next state record hybrid striped bass! Other fish species living at Barren River Lake include largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, spotted bass, bluegill, white crappie, black crappie, channel catfish, flathead catfish, blue catfish, and yellow bass, and walleye. More great tailwater fishing opportunities are available below the dam; there’s even a boat ramp for small boats!

The lake is within the famous Kentucky Caves region and is roughly a thirty-minute drive from the world’s longest cave system within Mammoth Cave National Park. Barren River Lake also has three huntable islands, restricted to primitive weapons hunting only for deer. Birdwatchers can view one of the many bird species in the lake area including the great blue heron, bald eagle, belted kingfisher, killdeer, turkey vulture, red-bellied woodpecker, eastern phoebe, American crow, Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, golden-crowned kinglet, and white-breasted nuthatch.

Cave Run Lake

• Surface Area: 8,270 acres
• Max Depth: 130 Feet
• Camping/Overnight Available: Yes
• Boating/Docks Available: Yes
• Swimming Permitted: Yes
• Fishing Permitted: Yes
• Best For: Boat Charters, Fishing Tournaments, Daniel Boone National Forest, State Record Muskie

Cave Run Lake, located in the northeastern corner of Kentucky, built to serve as flood protection, a water supply source, to assist with flow conditions for the Licking River, and to provide a home for various fish and wildlife. The lake also supports barbecuing, canoeing, horseback riding, kayaking, swimming, boating, sailing, jet-skiing, camping, hiking, and mountain biking. The lake provides twelve boat ramps across its two hundred miles of shoreline for anglers and water sports lovers.

Fishing tournaments regularly held at Cave Run Lake are for crappie, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and muskie. Cave Run Lakes, known for giant muskie, holds the state record in 2008, weighing in at forty-seven pounds! Over one hundred and fifty different fish species live in Cave Run Lake, one of the state’s top fishing locations.

The lake is within the Daniel Boone National Forest, a seven hundred thousand acre serving over a million yearly visitors. It’s a rugged forest area gives a home to many bird species. Look for wild turkey, red-headed woodpecker, black-and-white warbler, prothonotary warbler, yellow-throated warbler, summer tanager, American bittern, least bittern, king rail, Virginia rail, and sora. The forest is also a popular hunting destination. Keep an eye out for deer, ruffed grouse, quail, woodcock, squirrel, rabbit, fox, raccoon, waterfowl, and elk.

Green River Lake

• Surface Area: 8,210 acres
• Max Depth: 85 Feet
• Camping/Overnight Available: Yes
• Boating/Docks Available: Yes
• Swimming Permitted: Yes
• Fishing Permitted: Yes
• Best For: Fall Muskie Fishing, Underdeveloped Shoreline, Crappie Fishing, Full-Service Camping Experience 

Green River Lake, known best for autumn muskie fishing and boating, has an underdeveloped shoreline gives a peaceful and quiet lake experience. Amenities and activities available at the lake and Green River Lake State Park include ten boat ramps, two piers, one hundred and sixty-seven RV and sixty primitive campsites with WiFi, an eighteen-hole miniature golf course, hiking trails, a sandy swimming beach, a picnic area, volleyball area, playground, marina, restaurant, boat slips, and boat rentals.

Anglers know Green River Lake for the large amount and size of the muskie. Crappie is another popular species at the lake. Look out for largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, spotted bass, channel catfish, flathead catfish, walleye, bluegill, and white bass. The best fishing is by boat but there are also spots along the two hundred and fifty-mile shoreline. 

Green River Lake State Park allows for hunting. Some of the common wildlife in the area include deer, turkey, eagle, hawk, squirrel, and skunk. Birdwatching is also a popular activity with some of the common species seen being gadwall, pied-billed grebe, horned grebe, mourning dove, American coot, sandhill crane, Bonaparte’s gull, common loon, black vulture, American crow, and dark-eyed junco.

Nolin River Lake

• Surface Area: 5,807 acres
• Max Depth: 100 Feet
• Camping/Overnight Available: Yes
• Boating/Docks Available: Yes
• Swimming Permitted: Yes
• Fishing Permitted: Yes
• Best For: Unique Blue/Green Water, Top Kentucky Catfish Lakes, Scenic Canoe Trips, Mammoth Cave National Park, Black Largemouth Bass

Located in south-central Kentucky, Nolin River Lake’s creation for flood control and is one of the top recreational opportunities in the area today. A few of the lake’s features and amenities include an impressive one hundred and seventy-two-mile shoreline, twenty-five boat ramps, three marinas, and boat rental. One distinct attribute of Nolin River Lake is the serene and undisturbed atmosphere around the water providing a relaxed and peaceful environment.

Nolin River Lake, known for its impressive catfish, but you will also find bluegill, channel catfish, crappie, rainbow trout, walleye, and white bass. Fishing from a boat is the prime option at Nolin River Lake; however, three public fishing piers are also open to anglers. Another highly sought fish species in the lake is black largemouth bass, with trout tailwater fishing below dam being excellent as well.

Other popular attractions by Nolin River Lake are Mammoth Cave National Park and Nolin Lake State Park. The area houses a beach, country store, thirty-two developed campsites, twenty-seven primitive campsites, a playground, and Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system in the world. Birds found in the lake and park areas include passerines, worm-eating warbler, hooded warbler, cerulean warbler, yellow-throated warbler, summer tanager, scarlet tanager, red-eyed vireo, white-eyed vireo, yellow-throated vireo, wood thrushes, and bald eagles.

Rough River Lake

• Surface Area: 5,100 acres
• Max Depth: 80 Feet
• Camping/Overnight Available: Yes
• Boating/Docks Available: Yes
• Swimming Permitted: Yes
• Fishing Permitted: Yes
• Best For: Bass & Crappie Fishing, Pine Knob Theater, Lady Of The Lake Boat Tour, Diverse Fish Population, Full-Service Outdoor Recreational Lake Facility 

Rough River Lake is located in northwest Kentucky about seventy miles southwest of the state’s largest city, Louisville. Creation of the lake is for aid in flood control, provide water, and augment low-flow conditions for water quality control. Today Rough River Lake provides outdoor recreational activities and amenities abound including four primary campsites, three marinas, ​​four boat ramps, meeting rooms, a lodge, resort, cottages, a theater, disc golf course, basketball courts, a fishing pier, swimming areas, picnic provisions, fish cleaning stations and much more.

Anglers love Rough River Lake for the breadth of species that swim the lake’s waters. The exhaustive fish species lineup includes largemouth black bass, smallmouth black bass, Guadalupe bass, spotted bass, white bass, yellow bass, striped bass, Kentucky bass, Texas shiner, blacktail shiner, golden shiner, red shiner, jackfish, American eel, grindle, cypress trout, Texas cichlid, Rio Grande perch, boneless cat, shovelnose cat, spoonbill cat, smallmouth buffalo, bigmouth buffalo, black buffalo, longnose gar, shortnose gar, spotted gar, alligator gar, common carp, grass carp, red drum, freshwater drum, Goggle-Eye fish, green sunfish, longear sunfish, redear sunfish, redbreast sunfish, channel catfish, blue catfish, flathead catfish, white crappie, walleye, rainbow trout, and the main feeder fish is gizzard shad.

Hunting isn’t a primary activity at Rough River Lake, however, the area is for hunting and there are many great oxbows and a small, mostly unknown, island with deer and raccoon reported. The area is also a prime location for birdwatching with common species seen being eastern bluebirds, swallows, warblers, northern cardinals, blue jays, American robins, woodpeckers, mourning dove, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch, wild turkey, red-tailed hawks, red-breasted nuthatch, dark-eyed Junco, evening grosbeak and ring-billed gull. If you’re simply looking for a quiet day at the lake golfing or maybe a ride on the Lady Of The Lake boat tour, Rough River Lake is the spot for you.

Taylorsville Lake

• Surface Area: 3,050 acres
• Max Depth: 150 Feet
• Camping/Overnight Available: Yes
• Boating/Docks Available: Yes
• Swimming Permitted: Yes
• Fishing Permitted: Yes
• Best For: Taylorsville Lake State Park, Significant Duck Habitat, Excellent Fishing, Best Stocked Lake In Kentucky, Less Crowded Atmosphere, Near Louisville

Taylorsville Lake resides in north-central Kentucky and first provided assistance with flood prevention and quality water storage. In recent times the lake has become an extremely important hotspot for migrating ducks and other waterfowl. The lake sports an impressive twelve hundred acre shoreline complete with boat ramps, sixty campsites, a marina and it helps provide financial support for the areas around Spencer county.

The lake’s easy to find location, forty-five miles southeast of Louisville, provides a close, relaxed, serene environment with excellent, well-stocked fishing opportunities. Anglers can expect to catch largemouth bass, hybrid striped bass, white crappie, black crappie, channel catfish, blue catfish, freshwater drum, perch, and bluegill. Watersports enthusiasts can enjoy the small water skiing course available for wakeboarding, tubing, and jet skiing.

Beneath Taylorsville Lake the old town of Taylorsville still stands next to large amounts of timber left during the time of the lake’s creation; both are still visible during certain times of the year. The lake has recently become an important area for ducks and presents amazing bird watching opportunities with a huge range of other birds viewable including hawks, sparrows, hummingbirds, tufted titmouse, cedar waxwing, grouse, northern cardinals, warblers, thrushes, brown creepers, chimney swift, killdeer, black vulture, bald eagle, red-bellied woodpecker, northern flicker, blue jay, American crow, Carolina chickadee, and tree swallow.

Deepest Lake In Kentucky 

Herrington Lake

• Surface Area: 2,335 acres
• Max Depth: 249 Feet
• Camping/Overnight Available: Yes
• Boating/Docks Available: Yes
• Swimming Permitted: Yes
• Fishing Permitted: Yes
• Best For: Well-Stocked Lake, Deepest Lake In Kentucky, Duck & Geese Hunting

Herrington Lake is the deepest lake in the state of Kentucky. The lake was first created for hydroelectric power generation, provides fishing, camping, boating, swimming, and watersports opportunities today. It’s the deepest lake in the state of Kentucky making it excellent for high-speed boating and trolling for large fish.

Some of the different fish found swimming in Herrington Lake include catfish, crappie, hybrid spotted bass, and white bass. The most popular fish species targeted by anglers include largemouth bass, striped bass, and bluegill. The lake hosts an ongoing stocking program to help balance out the species in the lake and continue providing great fishing opportunities.

Herrington Lake is popular for pontoons and houseboats. The lake’s local marinas rent these. The lake is just under thirty miles from the city of Lexington making it a perfect getaway retreat for locals. Hunting Duck and geese is allowed in the area. Viewing of many other birds and wildlife including squirrel, chipmunk, fox, raccoon, rabbit, groundhog, opossum, coyote, white-tailed deer, and wild turkey.

Largest Lake In Kentucky 

Kentucky Lake

• Surface Area: 160,309 acres
• Max Depth: 75 Feet
• Camping/Overnight Available: Yes
• Boating/Docks Available: Yes
• Swimming Permitted: Yes
• Fishing Permitted: Yes
• Best For: White Bass & Yellow Perch Fishing, Low-Cost Vacation Spot, Tournament Fishing, Full-Service Lake Experience, Family Friendly

Kentucky Lake was originally created to serve as flood control and to provide hydroelectric power. Today it’s become a premier outdoor recreation destination for locals and would-be vacationers. It’s the largest man-made lake east of the Mississippi River and the state record holder for white bass, yellow perch, and Buffalo carp. Anglers explore the endless nooks and coves along the two thousand-mile shoreline for their chance to hook the state record!

An almost unending amount of lodging and camping options are available at Kentucky Lake. Visitors can find everything from glamping to primitive campsites. There is so much to do! In fact, Kentucky Lake even has its own website to help plan your vacation at visitkylake.com.

Hunting is another popular activity for Kentucky Lake visitors. A wide range of animals are open to hunting during specific seasons. A few of these species are white-tailed deer, waterfowl, and turkey. From Autumn and Christmas events, to live music and the traditional outdoor activities, Kentucky Lake is sure to have something for the entire family.

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The photo featured at the top of this post is © iStock.com/wapiti1997