See every public fishing venue in West Virginia on the map, with boat ramps, camping, parking and full rules for each one.
Cheat Lake is a public lake in Monongalia County, West Virginia, managed by West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (public fishing lake). It is public water managed for fishing by the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. Public access confirmed via marquee water.
A West Virginia flood-control reservoir (Summersville, Stonewall Jackson, Sutton, Burnsville, Tygart, Cheat, Bluestone, East Lynn, Beech Fork, R.D. Bailey, Jennings Randolph) — deep, clear, mountain water. Largemouth and smallmouth bass, walleye and a strong muskellunge programme, crappie, bluegill and channel catfish, plus stocked trout in the cold headwaters and tailwaters of several. Steep, forested, lightly developed.
Cheat Lake covers about 1,730 acres in the North Central & Northern Panhandle region. Anglers here mostly fish for largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, spotted bass, walleye; muskellunge, black crappie, white crappie, bluegill are also on record. The nearest other mapped waters on PiscaMaps are West Run and Quarry Run.
Species from PiscaMaps water-type profiles, WVDNR trout designations and hand research.
Night fishing: No statewide night-fishing closure in West Virginia. Some state-park lakes and a few WVDNR lakes post hours or gate at dark; the per-lake NightFishing status is shown on the water page where WVDNR records it. Trotlines, throwlines and juglines are legal on many warmwater rivers and lakes (not on trout water or in most state-park lakes) with the gear tagged.
Boats: Summersville, Stonewall Jackson, Bluestone, Tygart, Cheat, Burnsville, Sutton, R.D. Bailey and the other Corps lakes have no horsepower limit; idle / no-wake zones are marked near ramps, dams and marinas, and the flood-control lakes drop sharply in the fall drawdown. Most WVDNR and state-park lakes are electric-motor-only or have a 10-hp cap (shown on the water page). The New, Gauley and Cheat gorges are whitewater, not powerboat water.
Bank & bivvy camping: Camp at West Virginia state parks (many are on the lakes — Stonewall, Tygart Lake, Bluestone, North Bend, Watoga, Twin Falls, Pipestem near Bluestone) and state forests, the Monongahela National Forest (dispersed camping allowed across most of it, including along the trout rivers), and Corps campgrounds on Summersville, Sutton, Burnsville, Stonewall Jackson and Jennings Randolph. The New River Gorge NP has designated riverside and rim camping.
Tackle: Statewide black-bass daily limit is 6 (12-inch minimum on largemouth/smallmouth, 15-inch on some rivers); the New River and a number of others carry an 11-14 inch protected slot for smallmouth. Trout daily limit is 6 statewide, but the special-regulation streams (catch-and-release, fly-only, 3-fish/12-inch) each carry their own rule. Muskellunge 30-inch minimum, 1 per day; walleye, sauger, crappie and catfish limits vary by water. Check the current WVDNR fishing regulations for this water.
Boat ramps: 1 mapped — Boat ramp.
Source: OpenStreetMap contributors.
Anyone 15-64 needs a West Virginia Division of Natural Resources fishing licence — resident annual is about $19, non-resident annual about $37 (non-resident short-term licences are sold). A trout stamp (about $12, resident and non-resident) is required to fish for or possess trout anywhere in the state, and a National Forest stamp (about $3) is needed on the stocked waters inside the Monongahela National Forest. West Virginia residents 65 and older who were residents before turning 65 are licence-exempt but still need the trout and National Forest stamps. Buy from WVDNR at wvdnr.gov / 'Go Wild' (wvhunt.com). A West Virginia fishing licence covers this water; a trout stamp is also required to fish for or keep trout, plus a National Forest stamp on Monongahela National Forest waters.
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