Cedar Creek Lake WMA

Cast for bass or waterfowl hunt the flooded timber

By Lee McClellan

Cedar Creek Lake Wildlife Management Area in Lincoln County offers both hunting and fishing opportunities.     

          The wildlife management area (WMA) surrounding the 762-acre lake includes a 300-foot buffer zone. This gives bank-bound anglers and hunters access around the entire lake.

          “Previously on other lakes, we only had a 50-foot buffer zone that is totally inadequate,” said Benjy Kinman, deputy commissioner of Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “This gives the public maximum use of a public resource.”

          The large swaths of standing timber around much of the lake provide waterfowl hunters productive places to set up a decoy spread.

          “All of that standing timber really brings in the ducks,” said Kinman, who was instrumental in the planning and construction of the lake, which began filling in 2002. “The waterfowl hunting has been really good.”

          Cedar Creek Lake WMA is open to squirrel and archery/crossbow deer hunting as well as fall turkey hunting. Visitors can hunt rabbits from November 1 through December 31. Woods cover roughly 400 acres of the area and another 400 acres is open land.

          The biggest draw to the Cedar Creek Lake WMA is the lake’s largemouth bass fishing. It is the only lake in Kentucky with a 1-fish daily creel, 20-inch minimum size limit for largemouth bass. The lake produces numbers of bass in excess of 4 pounds.

          “We are routinely seeing largemouth bass over 20 inches in our sampling and get reports of bigger fish caught,” said Jeff Ross, assistant director of fisheries for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife.

          In winter and early spring, largemouth bass hang near drop-offs along the submerged former U.S. 150 and the old Cedar Creek channel. They move onto flats as the water warms. The flats located south of the ramp on the west side of the lake are especially productive in spring.

          The lake’s crappie fishing shows improvement after removal of the 9-inch minimum size limit. The lake also provides good fishing for redear sunfish and bluegill.

How to get there

          Take U.S. 150 east from Stanford for 8 miles to Cedar Creek Lake WMA. Three boat ramps serve the lake; follow the small brown signs along U.S. 150.