Mckinney Lake

(See Bottom for many pictures of the lake and Facilities including the boat ramp, piers , parking etc)

HINT - You can click on the Pictures to make them bigger and see them better

Mckinney Lake is a 75 Acre(some sources say 65 Acres) impoundment of Hitchcock Creek in Richmond County. This lake serves 2 purposes. 1. Supplying water to The Fish Hatchery located below the lake and 2. Recreation , mainly fishing , canoeing, and birdwatching.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commision leases the Hatchery from US Fish and Wildlife which operated the hatchery until 1995 and then the NCWRC in 1996 started leasing it for the production of channel Catfish in the 23 ponds .

This lake is a "Blackwater" lake and never gets muddy which makes it a good place to go after heavy rains which can have other spots muddy . The lake can also be fished during daylight hours on any day of the week.

What makes McKinney Lake really good and interesting is since 2016 the NCWRC has started a feeding program and the results have Bream(Bluegill to you Northerners) up to and over 1 lb !

Photo Courtesy NCWRC

I can say for sure when I was there last I counted no less than 9 feeders around the lake.

What can you catch here? Bream, Shellcrackers (Redears to the northerners) , Black Crappie, Largemouth Bass, Jack (Chain Pickerel to the Northerners), Raccoon Perch (Yellow Perch to Northerners) , Channel Catfish, and for sure some others that I cannot verify but most likely are in

there which are Redfin Pickerel, Bullheads, Common Carp and maybe Bowfin.

This lake can be accessed off of McDonald Church Rd (SR1475) and then Mckinney Lake Rd.