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Home › Waters › Kentucky › Cave Run Lake
Reservoir · Eastern Kentucky · Kentucky

Cave Run Lake Fishing Guides

The muskie lake of the South: a Licking River impoundment in the Daniel Boone National Forest where a fish most people associate with Wisconsin grows to serious size.

Sunrise burning off mist over a timbered reservoir
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Cave Run Lake

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

Order on this page: premium and outfitter plans first (labelled Premium placement), then claimed free profiles, then unclaimed — one published price, no bidding for position. How placement works

About the Cave Run Lake

Cave Run is the reason anglers in the South can fish for muskellunge without driving to the Great Lakes. The Corps impounded the Licking River in the 1970s inside the Daniel Boone National Forest, and Kentucky Fish and Wildlife built a muskie fishery on it that is now the best known south of the Ohio River. People plan whole seasons around it.

Muskie fishing here is what muskie fishing is anywhere: long days, few bites, and a fish that will follow a lure to the boat and turn away without touching it. The productive water is the standing timber and the flooded creek arms in the upper end, the weed edges where they exist, and the points where the old river channel swings close to cover. Autumn and early winter are the classic months, when the fish feed hard and the recreational traffic has gone home.

The lake is not only a muskie lake. Largemouth fishing around the timber is good and considerably easier, crappie fishing is dependable, and there is a decent white bass population. Most visitors come for one species and leave having caught several others.

Because the lake sits inside the national forest, the shoreline is public almost the whole way round. That is worth more than it sounds: bank anglers and kayakers can reach genuinely good water here without a bass boat, which is not true of most reservoirs in this directory.

The reading below is pool elevation. Cave Run is a flood-control reservoir with a real winter drawdown, and that swing decides whether the flooded timber and brush in the upper arms are in the water or standing in mud. The lake also colours quickly after rain on the Licking, which for muskie is often a help rather than a hindrance.

This water needs a real photo

The photo at the top of this page is not Cave Run Lake.

It is a regional stand-in, honestly captioned but generic — we will not put a name to a river we cannot prove. Send us a photograph you took here and it replaces the stand-in, with your credit on it.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

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We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

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5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Pool right now

729.77ft NGVD29
  • 24 hours-0.02 ft → steady

Reading taken 1h ago at USGS 03249498, CAVE RUN LAKE NEAR FARMERS, KY. Elevation is the surface of the lake above the survey datum, not depth. Source.

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Posting to Cave Run Lake.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Lake level alert

Tell me when the pool at Cave Run Lake ft (NGVD29)

Now: 729.77 ft pool elevation, read 7:05 am CST, Mon Nov 2, 2026 (USGS 03249498, CAVE RUN LAKE NEAR FARMERS, KY).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Scott Creek and Longbow: Corps ramps on the lower lake near the dam.
Zilpo Recreation Area: Forest Service camping and access on the north shore.
Twin Knobs Recreation Area: large campground and ramp on the south side.
Claylick and Warix Run: ramps giving access to the upper timber.
Upper Licking River arm: the flooded timber and the best muskie water.
Minor E. Clark Fish Hatchery: nearby, and worth a stop.
Note: much of the shoreline is national forest, so bank access is genuinely good.

Seasons

Winter: muskie feeding in the cold, few anglers, and the drawdown at its lowest.
Spring: bass and crappie in the timber, and muskie in the shallow arms after the spawn.
Summer: warm and busy on the lower lake, fish early and work the shade in the timber.
Fall: the classic muskie season, cooling water and the best odds of the year.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Cave Run Lake?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Bluegill, Channel Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Muskellunge, White Bass on the Cave Run Lake in Kentucky.

Are there fishing guides on the Cave Run Lake?

GuidedFloats lists 1 guide and outfitters on the Cave Run Lake. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Cave Run Lake?

Scott Creek and Longbow: Corps ramps on the lower lake near the dam. Zilpo Recreation Area: Forest Service camping and access on the north shore. Twin Knobs Recreation Area: large campground and ramp on the south side. Claylick and Warix Run: ramps giving access to the upper timber. Upper Licking River arm: the flooded timber and the best muskie water. Minor E. Clark Fish Hatchery: nearby, and worth a stop. Note: much of the shoreline is national forest, so bank access is genuinely good.

When is the best time to fish the Cave Run Lake?

Winter: muskie feeding in the cold, few anglers, and the drawdown at its lowest. Spring: bass and crappie in the timber, and muskie in the shallow arms after the spawn. Summer: warm and busy on the lower lake, fish early and work the shade in the timber. Fall: the classic muskie season, cooling water and the best odds of the year.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Cave Run Lake?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Kentucky agency site: https://fw.ky.gov/FishBoatGuide/Pages/default.aspx