West Virginia's Stone Wall Jackson C & R Only Lake

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Obviously, as you read the article you can see a few areas that need tweaked but all in all, this adventure has proven to be a win/win situation for anyone who has fished Stonewall.

Stonewall Jackson: West Virginia’s No. 1 Bass LakeDespite its age, this catch-and-release reservoir continues to provide topnotch largemouth bass action year after year. Read on for best-bet places to fish on our state’s No. 1 bass water. (April 2008)

Vivid memories of the trophy 10-pounder still keep me up at night. The vicious strike, a frantic battle, and one last boat side lunge that snapped my line. What a nightmare! My first 10-pound bass, inches from outstretched fingers, and then it was gone.

One of the most basic, yet sound, theories regarding trophy bass is that to consistently catch lunkers you must fish where they live. The more time anglers spend bass fishing in trophy-yielding water, the odds of catching trophy bass increase.


Surprisingly, my first encounter with a 10-pound bass didn’t take place in Florida or California but on West Virginia’s very own Stonewall Jackson Lake. Stonewall Jackson happens to be the East’s largest catch-and-release impoundment for black bass. While 10-pounders are still rare this far north, Stonewall Jackson sure has plenty of trophy bass.

Long noted as the state’s premier bass lake, Stonewall Jackson is one of West Virginia’s largest impoundments at 2,650 surface acres. Stonewall Jackson Lake is best known for its abundance of high-quality habitat, and the lake features an unbelievable amount of fishable water. Stonewall Jackson Lake has an average depth of 15 feet and contains acres of submerged timber.



One aspect that separates Stonewall Jackson from other lakes is the number of coves and no-wake zones that provide secluded fishing for anglers. These days, a quiet day on the water without interference from other boats can be refreshing. Big bass, tons of fishable water, and quality on-the-water experiences keep anglers coming back to this Lewis County impoundment.



Stonewall Jackson is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lake managed for flood control, so each year the impoundment experiences an obvious drawdown. Usually in September, the lake is lowered approximately 5 feet to catch excess winter and early spring precipitation. However, Stonewall Jackson fills quickly once the Corps starts retaining water in April.



IS IT STILL NO. 1?
Since the lake was impounded 17 years ago, Stonewall has been the best bass lake in West Virginia, but some anglers feel that trophy bass fishing in the lake is starting to decline. I’ll address the decline theory later in the article, but first, the numbers don’t lie.



The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR) has tracked bass tournament data from state waters for nearly 40 years. Significant information, such as catch rates and individual weights of tournament bass, has been recorded.



Even though the catch-and-release regulation prohibits conventional weigh-in tournaments, bass tournaments can be held on Stonewall Jackson using a “paper” tournament format where bass are caught, measured and released in the presence of a witness; hence, Stonewall Jackson is included in the historic data set.



An analysis of the bass tournament data by the DNR indicates that a combination ranking of catch rates (number of fish caught per hour) and quality-sized bass (biggest bass) remain higher in Stonewall Jackson than any other reservoir in the state.


Catching plenty of bass is fun, but most anglers come to Stonewall to catch “once-in-a-lifetime” trophy bass. And many times, catch them they do.

West Virginia DNR sampling data also shows that while Stonewall Jackson is still the number one bass lake in the state, the margin of difference has decreased significantly. Once far superior to other West Virginia lakes, data now indicates that impoundments such as Cheat, Summersville and East Lynn lakes are gaining quickly in the rankings.

One significant change in Stonewall Jackson was documented during a recent statewide research effort conducted by the DNR. Stonewall now displays a much higher percentage of spotted bass than it once did. In fact, just five or six years ago, spotted bass weren’t that common. Now, in some areas, up to 30 percent of the lake’s bass population consists of spotted bass. Such competition among bass species has and will likely continue to negatively affect largemouth bass populations on Stonewall Jackson. (THIS NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED, In MY Opinion, allowing harvesting of all bass with a tongue patch)


WHY IS STONEWALL NO. 1?
A catch-and-release regulation on black bass (largemouth, smallmouth and spotted) has been in place on Stonewall Jackson Lake since it was filled in 1989. Usually, when a new lake is impounded that reservoir tends to produce incredible growth rates in fish during a five- to seven-year period.


An overwhelming majority of anglers still favor the catch-and-release regulation for black bass on Stonewall Jackson. But is the lake’s trophy bass population declining because of the regulation as some critics claim?



First of all, there does seem to be a shift in the lake’s trophy bass population. Fewer trophy bass remain in the lake than were there 10 years ago, although there are still plenty of bass over 5 pounds swimming in the lake.



However, the problem doesn’t lie within bass population “stunting” as many folks predicted it would. There appears to be no stockpiling of small bass in the lake. A portion of the large trophy bass have died off from old age, and growth is much slower in remaining bass now that the reservoir has aged (productivity has decreased). This natural progression was inevitable, and reservoirs across the country encounter the exact same scenario, usually much quicker than Stonewall Jackson has.



The slower growth factor has been compounded by the illegal introduction of white bass and yellow perch, both of which consume tons of forage from the lake that should belong to the lake’s premier species: largemouth bass.



Over the years, Stonewall has received plenty of fishing pressure, so incidental hooking mortality, as well as delayed mortality, probably prevented the stockpiling of small bass within the lake’s system. The result is that removing the catch-and-release regulation would do little to increase the number of trophy bass.



In fact, the impending selective harvest would likely remove even more trophy bass from the lake. Even switching from a catch-and-release regulation to a slot limit wouldn’t solve the slow growth and potential forage shortage.



Besides the catch-and-release regulation, the primary reason Stonewall Jackson remains West Virginia’s top bass lake is habitat. Tons of standing timber still exists in Stonewall Jackson, providing quality habitat for bass from one end of the lake to the other.



A fair amount of the lake’s shoreline is lined with riprap, yielding additional high production areas for bass and baitfish to inhabit. No other state reservoir can come close to containing as much riprap as Stonewall Jackson. These fine habitat types, as well as others covered inside the article, should continue to keep bass fishing on Stonewall Jackson at a premium.


Stonewall Jackson was no exception, as fish, especially bass, grew extremely fast. With the impending catch-and-release regulation, the DNR has maintained impressive numbers of large bass in the lake, thus recycling big bass after big bass for anglers to catch over and over again. The regulation has played a vital part in the success of trophy bass fishing on Stonewall Jackson Lake.