Charleston WV

[Tackett1980]

Hey all.

 

I’ve lived in WV all my life.  I’m all fished out around here.  I’ve fished pretty much every body of water in the state and I’ve never caught anything significant.  Few 1-2 pounders and that’s about all.    

 

Does anyone have a location near Charleston they would like to divulge that has some actual good sized fish in it?  

 

Ive been going to the upper mud river lake but I get skunked every time I go and I’m tired of it. 

 

You name I’ve tried it and either had no luck or just caught little teeny things. 

 

 

 

[frogflogger]

We're not noted for large bass in WV but we do have good small mouth fisheries (New river) but the Kanawha right there in Charleston up to kanawha falls offers chances at good smallmouth. The I79 lakes - Sutton, Burnsville, and most notably Stonewall Jackson offer decent bass fishing with the chance of a trophy best at stonewall jackson.

Summersville lake in winter can be productive for good smallmouth and walleye. If you just want to tangle with a big fish we have some of the best musky fishing in the east in our streams and some of the above mentioned res.

[Marvin Lewis]

Where exactly are you located in Charleston?  Always looking for a fishing partner.  My experience takes me to lakes that people don't pound the hell out the bass at.  I have a few.  Also, you have to be willing to fish for 1 big bite.  As mentioned above WV isn't loaded with big bass like TN or AL, nor are we noted for a large populations of bass (Greenbrier, New River etc....are the exception) so you have to be willing to be skunked sometimes in order to catch a few big ones

 

I have a few takes on the post above.  The I-79 lakes:  Sutton is known for its population of spotted bass, which in WV do not grow to be very big.  However, there are some nice largemouth up the rivers, but without good local lake knowledge your chances are slim.  Burnsville has some nice quality bass, but this time of year I would stay away.  Stonewall - has big bass and would be the place to go anytime of the year.  Make a trip up.  My personal WV best comes from Stonewall in June.

 

The Kanawha River from Charleston up is a good stretch of water at times.  It does have some nice Smallies.  However, your chances of catching nothing are way higher than catching a quality Smallmouth.  If you choose the river wait until late November/ early December and hit the rip rap in front of the Capital.  Don't believe me.  Look at the Trail of Dreams tournament results for the Kanawha River - laughable that people waste their time on that.

 

I cant speak of Summersville - I have never fished it.  However, as mentioned above it is loaded with quality Smallies.

[RealtreeByGod]

The Elk down river of the dam is a pretty good fishery. You're not gonna be hitting very many largemouth though, mostly smallmouth and walleyes. 

[Tackett1980]

Wow thanks for all the replies!  I actually revisited this thread because I went out again, like I do every weekend, and I got skunked again, just like every other weekend.

 

I went out on upper mud river lake again, I’m done with that place.  I threw out a 130 whopper plopper all day hoping to blow up on a Muskie, but I may as well have been fishing in a public swimming pool.  There’s fish in there on the depth finder but at this point I’m convinced they are all carp, or catfish.  

 

Im really frustrated.  I don’t understand why we don’t have these huge bass like other states do.  Someone told me that the DNR is shocking all the lakes around here and taking all the fish to stonewall in order to drum up buisness.  I believe it to Ive been to woodrum, O’Brien, summersville, plum orchard, east Lynn, mud river, you name it.  The only time I ever catch decent fish is when I go on vacation somewhere.  It really irks me that I have to travel a minimum of an hour to get to a body of water where I stand a chance to catch a fish that weighs more than 1/2 a pound.

 

This is where I have been this spring/summer:

 

1:  New river by Hinton below the falls.  I caught a couple smallies and some bluegill, nothing major.  Maybe a pound or 2.

 

2:  as mentioned I have floated down the elk from the dam down and I caught fish on a wacky worm like every cast, but again they were dinky things.  The biggest one was maybe 2-3 pounds at the most.  

 

3:  O’Brien 

been here at least a dozen times.  Blue gill only never caugh a bass

 

4: upper mud river lake.

caught a small 1 pound largemouth.  Every other time has been bluegills or skunked.  

 

5:  Kanawha falls.

been here about 4 times this summer.  I’ve literally never even gotten a strike here.

 

6:  woodrum 

skunked all 6 times.  Pretty place though.

 

7:  east Lynn

skunked.  Did see some monsters in the depth finder.  Never got a single strike, plus there are so many boaters I hated it.

 

8:  little coal/big coal

this has been my stomping grounds for years and I had my best results out of here...in the past.  I even pulled a Muskie out of the little coal when I was younger.  In the past few years my luck gets worse and worse.  My last couple years I’ve literally caught nothing every time I’ve gone.

 

As far as stone coal, or stonewall those places are 1.5-2 hours from south Charleston.  It’s just not feasible for me to take a day trip out there.  My other problem is it’s hard for me to float a river when I’m by myself, so it has to be relatively calm where I can paddle up and float or just paddle around.   

 

Maybe I just suck at fishing, but it feels like my luck gets worse and worse every year to the point that I really don’t even like doing it much anymore.  It’s pretty annoying pulling and loading all this garbage for nothing.  

 

 

 

 

 

[Marvin Lewis]

Hey Buddy I feel your pain.  I really do.  Although it sounds like you get out to fish more than I do - so I don't feel too bad for you.  I live in Sissonville.  This is my email address:  erc1105@yahoo.com

 

Give me a shout if you would like to meet up sometime.  I have caught many, many 5 pounders at O'Brien (Jigs / Spinnerbaits / top water).  And the muddier the water - the better.  All the way up into December.  I have also gone out to O'Brien and been skunked many, many, many times 

 

I love Stonewall - just as with you I am 1.5 hours away.  I make the trip, but not nearly as much as I want to.

 

I don't consider myself a very good fisherman either.  In fact I sometimes wonder why I even bother, until I have THAT day.  But maybe we can teach each other something, who knows. 

 

WV DNR - Not a fan.  I don't believe they take fish from other places and put them in Stonewall simple because that would be too much effort for them.  If it doesn't have to do with trout, they don't care.  Just my humble opinion.  No offense to trout guys.

[RHuff]

I know the DNR recently shocked and took LM bass from R.D. Bailey Lake and released them in Summersville lake to "supplement" the numbers. Also, they tested Plum Orchard and found that LM bass there are stunted in growth so they are working at stocking Plum with golden shiners as a food source. 

[MeanDeanMachine]

Upper Mud is SOOOOO frustrating. This is my first year on it, moved here and am 30 mins from it. Ivecaught my WV Largemouth PR on it (21 inch, 5.5lbs) and 2 others that were 17-18 inches, BUT THAT'S IT. Literally only 3 LMB I've caught out of that place. I've seen some BIG bass and thrown jigs, swimbaits, worm variations at them...NOTHING. They just sit there and look. I just think it's a place that fish are more pressured than what people realize. Literally everyone I talk to while I'm there catch 1 fish or get SKUNKED. My girlfriend hammers the bluegill and sunfish there though. Like you, I'm looking for another place. I grew up on the New River (born and raised in Hinton, WV) so I'm used to getting some smallie action.