Revspan

I just moved to Bowling Green and am looking forward tot the upcoming boating season. Since I am close to both lakes....I was wondering if I could get opinions on both. Our boating is family oriented, and we like to have places to visit so the kids can have a break from the boat...beaches etc.. Our last favorite lake was in Michigan, and was Higgins lake, as well as the great lakes on occasion(Saginaw bay, Mackinaw islande etc).

My wife and I have visited both lakes and they seem to have no place with any kind of beach, or place to pull up to and take a break. It all looks too rocky. Also, some of the launches we visited would be tough to get in and out of with a trailer(we are shopping for a ~30' boat now).

Any advice? We are not the dedicated poker run family.... although it could be fun. We just want a fun place to spend weekends....maybe even buy a place close to the lake.

Lastly.....anyone have ideas on storage? Seems there are a lot of places...not sure what would be a good option. Oh....and we are NOT interested in a houseboat....they are everywhere.

Thanks.

GETTINBYE

Dale Hollow will be more "family "quite" oriented". Check out the State Park.
Lake Cumberland can and will give you the best of both worlds. You will have the option of adult oriented areas or family oriented areas on the same body of water. Even on holiday weekends you should be able to find a secluded area or be in the middle of the party depending on what you want. Plenty of ramp-launch options for any size boat on Cumberland and at the State Park on Dale.

SkiDoc

iTrader: (4)

I live in Bowling Green and have a house at Lake Cumberland, and a ski lake in Scottsville. There are multiple lakes very close. For a power boater Barren River Lake is probably not the way you will want to go. The Nashville lakes are a lot of fun. Center Hill Lake is very beautiful. You are also very close to Kentucky and Barkley Lakes which are very nice. I prefer Cumberland Lake obviously for its size and depth, but the floating debris is always a pain in the Spring.
I would recommend checking them all out and see what appeals most to you.

roadtripse

Another vote for Cumberland. We drive from the Detroit area to our home there, and have been doing so for a decade. Dale Hollow is nice, but Cumberland is larger, and has a broader array of amenities and choices. Our cruiser is at Jamestown Marina which is family-oriented, and has a decent ramp. There are several store and locks around each marina. We do both, keeping our big boat in a slip and our smaller one in a locker. I would check out JRM and State Dock as the two best facilities on the lake.

corey331

I do 99% of my boating on Cumberland and love it, although I think Dale Hollow is a prettier lake. Really, you can't go wrong with either. As far as beach areas go Sunset Marina on Dale Hollow has a man made beach area that looks pretty nice but that's going to be it. Most of your family areas are going to be places where you anchor and the kids can swim to shore and jump off cliffs and what not. There are quite a few places like that on both lakes. On Cumberland there is the south Fork Party Cove, which despite its name, is pretty family friendly and has 5 or 6 different cliffs to jump off of ranging from 3ft. to 40-50ft and also has a swinging rope. There is also Little Falls which is up Otter Creek that is family friendly. For the times you want more adult fun, you can hit up Harmon Creek or 76 Falls. I know at Dale Hollow there are a few cliff jumping spots where people raft up, One is south of Sunset Marina and on the North end of the lake just up from Eagles Cove Marina.

As far as launch ramps go, there are a few really nice ones on Cumberland. Wolf Creek Dam has an awesome ramp and is going to be the closest to you. It also has the best parking lot on the lake. On the other end of the lake, Burnside State Park has a really nice ramp as well.

Basically, you will be very happy no matter which lake you go to, so have fun!!!

ALL_IN!

iTrader: (1)

Cumberland or Kentucky/Barkley as previously mentioned. Cumberland is very deep (anchoring has been difficult in my experience). Kentucky has a few beach areas on north end of lake, Barkley is shallow in many spots, so navi or a good co-pilot is a must.

Marginmn

iTrader: (1)

The shoreline of most all of Cumberland is shaped like a V. It fills up in the winter/spring and they drop it by as much as 50 feet by winter. There are very few places to tie up and hang out on shore. Boaters do mass tie-ups in the coves and swim off the back of their boats.

Dale Hollow on the other hand on varies by less than ten feet from spring to fall. While some of the lake is V shaped, there are many places to tie your houseboat up to shore or to anchor a runabout in shallow water and picnic on gently sloping land.

While they are both great house boat lakes, Cumberland is more of a fast-paced party lake with many more high performance boats and cruisers with massive party coves; while Dale Hollow is more laid back with runabouts, fishing boats and a more relaxed family atmosphere IMO. Both are great lakes but hands down I would want to be on Cumberland if I owned a big go-fast and Dale Hollow if I owned an 25 ft or less runabout.

TBAG

I think Marginmn has got everything covered that you asked!

Anyways, I'll add that I've been to both but grew up going to Cumberland and currently keep my boat there. It's a shorter drive for me from Lexington than Dale Hollow so that is by far a big deciding factor. I'm sure you'll love both bodies of water but for me I prefer Cumberland.

AllDodge

iTrader: (1)

Been on both but I spend my time on Dale. Water gets rough on both during holiday weekends and seem to always have trouble getting out of the wake on Cumberland. I'm sure there are places but seem to always have trouble. I don't have the same issue on Dale, appears to have a lot more small coves to get into and out of the wake. Has been getting more crowed every year, it seems.

BTW my bad, Dale is a terrible place to go boating, forget everything I said,