CANE CREEK
Also in the south-central region, anglers should do pretty well on Cane Creek in Laurel County.

This cold-water stream gets a very healthy dose of rainbows each year from March through June and, like Bark Camp, another booster shot in October. Cane Creek does not receive browns, however.

Cane Creek comes off the Rockcastle River north of the headwaters of Lake Cumberland and is northwest of Laurel River Lake, running more or less along SR 192 in southwestern Laurel County.

Trout fishermen have a bit over 6.5 miles of fishable water between the Hightop and Rockcastle Springs areas in the Daniel Boone National Forest north of SR 192. Within that distance, all types of approaches are possible, including some short floats, wading in the stream, and bank-fishing in spots, depending on the water level and flow.

You can expect fairly rough terrain in places, but a scenic adventure in many areas when spring wildflowers and mountain laurel are coming into bloom. Sometimes you can work your way along until you find a particularly fishy-looking spot, and enjoy enough action in one stretch that you don't have to go a longer distance.

After being released, trout take a little while to disperse away from their stocking site. However, hold-over fish will have done so. And if you're in shape and willing to make the extra effort, you may find the higher-quality fish farther off the road, so to speak.

Since Cane Creek is one of the longer waterways under the delayed-harvest management system, it is stocked with 5,000 rainbows raised at the Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery below Lake Cumberland. This facility provides all the trout stocked by the KDFWR and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Kentucky. Without this facility in operation, it is likely that Kentucky would have no type of trout program.

ROCK CREEK
While we're in the area, we need to tell you a little about Rock Creek, next door to the west in McCreary County. Perhaps Kentucky's best stream trout fishery in the delayed-harvest program, it has a lot of good trout habitat, is larger than many of the other streams and is pretty easy to locate.

From the Bell Farm Bridge upstream for almost 10 miles to the Tennessee state line, Rock Creek's trout are protected from harvest from October through March. In April, though, anglers may take a few home for the frying pan or broiler.