Seventy Five Miles of Trout

The Cumberland River gets its start where the Clover Fork, Martin's Fork and Poor Fork Creeks meet in Harlan Kentucky. The upper Cumberland Basin, from Harlan to Celina, Tennessee, drains roughly 6,400 square miles of land and gathers water from over 7,900 miles of tributary streams and rivers. Cumberland Lake covers 65,530 acres and has 1,255 miles of shoreline. It is impounded by Wolf Creek Dam. The construction of Wolf Creek Dam was authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1938 and the River Harbor Act of 1946. Construction began in 1941 and was completed in 1951. Our area of focus is the seventy five mile stretch of river flowing from Wolf Creek Dam to the Kentucky / Tennessee State Line. Kentucky DNR stocks Rainbow, Brown, Cutthroat and Brook Trout. In 2022, there were over 320,000 trout stocked in this stretch of river.