Addendum
Gary was kind enough to share some of his memories of this area with me and I thought they might be of interest to the group. Appreciate the input, learning more about an area is something I'm always keen to do.
From Gary: I'm very familiar with the area. My family and I hunted there before it was game lands and and before the lake was there. It was owned by Mr. Scott, his house was there and he raised Appaloosa horses on the property. He built the lake and it was a paid lake before the Game Commission bought it. The hollow at the back of the lake is very thick and hard to get through, but we could always kick out game as long as we had the energy to get through. Killed some deer there too. One year in bow season I was walking along the creek at the head of the lake and heard some splashing. I went down I found brook and brown trout spawning all along the creek. There have always been big bass in the lake. I caught my biggest there; 21 1/2 in. 4 lb 10 oz. There is another very small pond close to the lake that has bass in it, but never caught any big ones.
The last time I fished up there I saw a pair of Bald Eagles.
Original Post
It isn't clear where I first heard about Harbar Acres lake but somehow an article popped up on my computer talking about this little hidden gem in Butler county. Here's a link to it.
Intrigued I decided to take my kayak up and have a look see on Wednesday (October 21st 2020). In typical 2020 fashion a day when the weather man had predicted sunny conditions was in fact overcast and windy. In fact I got rained on several times.
The lake is small (16 acres) and basically a circle with no indents, coves, or bays. For those who don't have a boat it has plenty of shoreline fishing available. Note, this is a non-power boat lake motors are prohibited. Also, once hunting season starts you must wear blaze orange as the lake sits inside a state gamelands.
There isn't any visible structure either which concerned me. Nonetheless, I took the kayak off the roof, loaded up my gear and pushed off.
It turned out the lake had been stocked 1 hour prior to my arrival but the trout were all milling around the shore where they'd been dumped in.
Fishing one of my favorite rigs a Wooly Bugger being trailed by a nymph I felt a tug on the line and was surprised to find a small bass on the other end. That turned out to be the theme of the day for me.
I caught 3 bass, 5 specks (crappie), several bluegill and finally one of those shell shocked trout before calling it a day. Not a bad afternoon of fishing considering how difficult the wind made fly fishing.
I understand there are some nice bass in the lake and plan to put it on my summer 2021 schedule. I love fly fishing with poppers for bass and this place looks as though it could hold some potential.