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Home › Waters › Kansas › Cheney Reservoir
Reservoir · South Central Kansas · Kansas

Cheney Reservoir Fishing Guides

Wichita water supply and the closest big lake to the city, with a strong walleye and wiper fishery and a gauge that reports temperature as well as level.

A quiet lake ringed by trees under a clouded sky
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Cheney Reservoir

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.

About the Cheney Reservoir

Cheney is the reservoir Wichita fishes and the reservoir Wichita drinks. It sits on the North Fork of the Ninnescah west of the city, a broad, shallow, wind-exposed lake on the plains with very little natural cover and a fishery built almost entirely on open water and riprap.

Walleye are the main target and Cheney is one of the more consistent walleye lakes in Kansas, fished on the points and dam riprap in spring and trolled or drifted over the flats through summer. Wipers provide the fast summer fishing, schooling on shad in open water where the birds will usually find them for you. White bass are abundant and run up the Ninnescah in spring.

Catfishing is dependable, with channel cats everywhere and blue catfish reaching good size. Crappie hold on the brush piles and the riprap, and there are largemouth around what shoreline cover exists.

Wind is the constant. Cheney is famous among Kansas sailors for exactly the reason it is difficult for anglers, and a strong south wind can shut down most of the lake. The compensation is that the wind-blown shorelines concentrate bait and fish, and anglers who work with it rather than against it do well.

Because Cheney is a drinking water supply for a large city, its level is managed with that in mind as much as with flood control, and in a dry stretch the lake can drop a long way. Low water pulls fish off the shallow flats and stacks them on the remaining structure, which makes for concentrated and often very good fishing right when the lake looks at its worst.

The gauge below reports pool elevation, stored volume and water temperature. That third number is genuinely useful on a walleye lake, because temperature rather than the calendar decides when the spring fishing turns on.

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The photo at the top of this page is not Cheney Reservoir.

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.

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.

Pool right now

1,420.15ft NGVD29
  • 24 hours-0.02 ft → steady
  • Storage153,600 acre-ft
  • Water temperature64 F
  • For the dateAbout normal for the date

Reading taken 1h ago at USGS 07144790, CHENEY RE NR CHENEY, KS. Elevation is the surface of the lake above the survey datum, not depth. Source.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Cheney Reservoir.

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 Cheney Reservoir ft (NGVD29)

Now: 1,420.15 ft pool elevation, read 11:00 pm CDT, Wed Oct 21, 2026 (USGS 07144790, CHENEY RE NR CHENEY, KS).

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

Access

Cheney State Park: ramps, camping and marina on both the east and west shores.
Dam and outlet area: riprap fishing and bank access.
North Fork Ninnescah arm: the spring white bass run and shallower water.
Public ramps around the lake are numerous and well maintained.
Extensive riprap gives good bank fishing along the dam.
Wichita is under an hour away, so services are close.
Note: very exposed to wind, with little shelter anywhere on the lake.

Seasons

Winter: deep walleye and quiet water, with ice in the coves in a cold year.
Spring: the walleye spawn on the riprap and the white bass run up the Ninnescah.
Summer: wipers schooling on open water, catfish on the flats, hot and windy.
Fall: cooling water concentrates walleye and the fishing steadies.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Cheney Reservoir?

Anglers target Blue Catfish, Channel Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Walleye, White Bass, White Crappie, Wiper on the Cheney Reservoir in Kansas.

Are there fishing guides on the Cheney Reservoir?

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

Where can you access the Cheney Reservoir?

Cheney State Park: ramps, camping and marina on both the east and west shores. Dam and outlet area: riprap fishing and bank access. North Fork Ninnescah arm: the spring white bass run and shallower water. Public ramps around the lake are numerous and well maintained. Extensive riprap gives good bank fishing along the dam. Wichita is under an hour away, so services are close. Note: very exposed to wind, with little shelter anywhere on the lake.

When is the best time to fish the Cheney Reservoir?

Winter: deep walleye and quiet water, with ice in the coves in a cold year. Spring: the walleye spawn on the riprap and the white bass run up the Ninnescah. Summer: wipers schooling on open water, catfish on the flats, hot and windy. Fall: cooling water concentrates walleye and the fishing steadies.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Cheney Reservoir?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Kansas agency site: https://ksoutdoors.com/Fishing/Fishing-Regulations