Milford Reservoir is Kansas' largest artificial lake, with 163 miles of shoreline and over 16,000 surface acres. The lake is 5 miles north of Junction City and only a 30-minute drive west of Manhattan in the Flint Hills of Kansas. Milford Lake and the surrounding 21,000 acres make up one of Kansas' prime outdoor habitats. Native and red cedars line the irregular shoreline. Known as the "Lake of Blue Water," it is one of the more scenic of Kansas' lakes. The Milford Nature Center/Fish Hatchery , located at the base of Milford Dam, is a true state-of-the art facility, exploring nature and the wonders of aquatic life at its best. Numerous camping and picnicking areas are maintained by the Department of Wildlife and Parks, the Corps of Engineers, and the city of Wakefield. Two privately owned marinas are located on the lake, providing services for boaters and fishermen.
Walleye concentrate along the face of the dam during early April to spawn. Following the spawn, Farnum Creek flat, the mud points near School Creek and the flats near the military marina are good areas. During the summer, walleye often are taken off the state park points in 25 to 40 feet of water. Nearly all of the brushy and rocky coves contain crappie, but the coves around Rolling Hills and Curtis Creek are traditional hot spots. Autumn finds the crappie back in the same haunts as in the spring. Ice fishing in winter in the Curtis Creek area often yields sizable strings of crappie. Milford usually produces a white bass run in the Republican River each spring in late April or early May. In years when the river is high and turbid, a spawning run occurs off the face of the dam, rather than upriver. In summer, the white bass can be taken while trolling deep-diving lures across underwater drop offs. During the hot summer months, night fishing for white bass under lanterns or floating lights is popular. One of the best places for night fishing is Madison Point and along both sides of the Wakefield causeway. The upper end of the lake above the Wakefield causeway has traditionally offered the best catfishing, but catfish are common throughout the reservoir. Most of the large flatheads are caught along the Wakefield causeway and in the standing timber in the upper end on set lines and live bait. Nearly all the wooded coves that hold crappie also hold largemouth bass. In general, any of the rocky points and banks in the lower half of the lake will harbor smallmouth, but the face of the dam has by far the highest density of this fish.
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