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Home › Waters › Indiana › Cecil M. Harden Lake
Lake · Parke County, a flood control reservoir on Big Raccoon Creek, widely known as Raccoon Lake, in the covered bridge country of west central Indiana · Indiana

Cecil M. Harden Lake Fishing Guides

The Parke County reservoir better known as Raccoon Lake, with reservoir elevation and rainfall on the gauge, in the covered bridge country of west central Indiana.

The bow of a boat on flat reservoir water in early light
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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About the Cecil M. Harden Lake

Cecil M. Harden Lake impounds Big Raccoon Creek in Parke County, west central Indiana, and almost everyone who fishes it calls it Raccoon Lake. It covers around two thousand acres and was built for flood control on the Wabash tributary system, with recreation and low flow augmentation as secondary purposes. The setting is genuinely attractive country, wooded ravines and farmland in the part of Indiana famous for its covered bridges, and the lake has a long irregular shoreline with plenty of timbered points and creek arms.

The gauge here is more comprehensively instrumented than most reservoir sites. It reports reservoir elevation and rainfall at the dam, and a further set of sensors for water temperature, dissolved oxygen, conductance and chlorophyll is installed but not currently returning values. The elevation record is the one to use. Because the lake is operated for flood control the pool moves, sometimes substantially and quickly after heavy rain in the Big Raccoon catchment, and the rainfall trace at the same site gives advance warning of a rise. Fish shift between flooded cover and main lake structure on exactly that signal.

Largemouth bass are the main fishery, with smallmouth and spotted bass present around rock and the lower creek arms. Crappie are numerous and hold on brush and standing timber, and bluegill and redear sunfish are abundant enough to make a good family trip. Channel catfish are widespread and flathead catfish reach large sizes in the upper arms. The state stocks walleye and saugeye, adding a genuine cool water component that many Indiana reservoirs lack. Raccoon Lake State Recreation Area provides ramps, camping, a beach and extensive shoreline access, and the tailwater below the dam is worth fishing in its own right.

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Pool right now

661.78ft NGVD29
  • 24 hours-0.03 ft → steady

Reading taken 1h ago at USGS 03340870, CECIL M. HARDEN LAKE AT FERNDALE, IN. Elevation is the surface of the lake above the survey datum, not depth. Source.

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Posting to Cecil M. Harden 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 Cecil M. Harden Lake ft (NGVD29)

Now: 661.78 ft pool elevation, read 5:15 pm CDT, Sun Oct 18, 2026 (USGS 03340870, CECIL M. HARDEN LAKE AT FERNDALE, IN).

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

Access

Rockville - the county seat north, with services, lodging, supplies and the covered bridge festival.
Raccoon Lake State Recreation Area - the state park on the lake, with ramps, camping and a beach.
Cecil M. Harden Dam - the outlet at the west end, with tailwater fishing and bank access.
Big Raccoon Creek - the inflow above and the tailwater below, holding smallmouth and catfish.
Crawfordsville - half an hour northeast, with fuller services and tackle.
Turkey Run State Park - north on Sugar Creek, a good companion destination with stream fishing.
Indianapolis - an hour east, with the nearest major airport and complete outfitting.

Seasons

Spring: the pick of the year, with bass and crappie shallow and the pool typically full.
Summer: warm with bass on deeper structure, good bluegill fishing and strong night catfishing.
Fall: excellent as the water cools and turns over, with bass and crappie feeding hard.
Winter: cold and slow with limited and variable ice, though crappie remain catchable in the deeper timber.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Cecil M. Harden Lake?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Bluegill, Channel Catfish, Common Carp, Flathead Catfish, Freshwater Drum, Largemouth Bass, Redear Sunfish, Saugeye, Smallmouth Bass, Spotted Bass, Walleye, White Bass, White Crappie, Yellow Perch on the Cecil M. Harden Lake in Indiana.

Where can you access the Cecil M. Harden Lake?

Rockville - the county seat north, with services, lodging, supplies and the covered bridge festival. Raccoon Lake State Recreation Area - the state park on the lake, with ramps, camping and a beach. Cecil M. Harden Dam - the outlet at the west end, with tailwater fishing and bank access. Big Raccoon Creek - the inflow above and the tailwater below, holding smallmouth and catfish. Crawfordsville - half an hour northeast, with fuller services and tackle. Turkey Run State Park - north on Sugar Creek, a good companion destination with stream fishing. Indianapolis - an hour east, with the nearest m...

When is the best time to fish the Cecil M. Harden Lake?

Spring: the pick of the year, with bass and crappie shallow and the pool typically full. Summer: warm with bass on deeper structure, good bluegill fishing and strong night catfishing. Fall: excellent as the water cools and turns over, with bass and crappie feeding hard. Winter: cold and slow with limited and variable ice, though crappie remain catchable in the deeper timber.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Cecil M. Harden Lake?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Indiana agency site: https://www.in.gov/dnr/fish-and-wildlife/fishing/