West Virginia Fishing Reports

A new West Virginia state length record for chain pickerel arrived April 21, when Matt Born of Reedsville landed a 27.95-inch, 5.65-pound fish from a private pond in Preston County, narrowly besting his own prior mark of 27.87 inches — per Outdoor Hub. Flow at USGS gauge 03051000 sits at 364 cfs as of early May 7; no water temperature reading was available from the gauge. That moderate flow points to fishable conditions heading into the weekend. Bass are deep in the early-May post-spawn shuffle: Tactical Bassin reports fish splitting between residual shallow-spawn areas and the first open-water transition zones, with topwater poppers, swimbaits, and finesse rigs all drawing strikes simultaneously. The waning gibbous moon currently favors pre-dawn and late-evening windows over midday activity. With no gauge temperature data on hand, historically the New River runs in the low-to-mid 60s °F by the first week of May — prime range for aggressive smallmouth feeding.

1d ago