Medicine Creek is the lake southwest Nebraska keeps for itself. At 1,800 acres it’s a comfortable middleweight — big enough for a boat, small enough to learn — and the regulars are mostly locals chasing walleye, crappie, and a wiper population that Game and Parks surveys have called the best in the state.
Spring walleyes slide up into the shallow creek arms; summer pushes them to deeper main-lake structure. There’s plenty of shore fishing if you don’t mind a short walk, and a kayak or canoe gets you to water the bass boats skip.
It’s one of the four Southwest Reservoirs, managed for irrigation on Medicine Creek, so levels move with the season. Cambridge is the nearest town for supplies. Come on a weekday and you might have a whole arm to yourself.