Fly Fishing

Potomac Highlands

All terrain in West Virginia above 4,000 feet lies in this region, including Spruce Knob at 4,863 feet.

Greenbrier Valley

The Greenbrier Valley sits on Greenbrier limestone, producing karst topography: sinkholes, springs, sinking streams and extensive cave systems, several with more than forty miles of surveyed passage.

Eastern Panhandle

The Appalachian Trail crosses the Potomac at Harpers Ferry and runs roughly 24 miles through this region.

Mountain Lakes

The geographic center of the state and its least-visited region.

Cranberry Wilderness

47,815 acres of second-growth northern hardwood and red spruce on the high plateau — the largest wilderness in West Virginia.

Blue Bend Recreation Area

A CCC-built swimming area on Anthony Creek in the Monongahela National Forest, with a deep green pool below a stone-walled beach, a campground and a loop trail up onto the ridge.

Seneca Creek Backcountry

A network of trails below Spruce Knob following Seneca Creek through spruce and northern hardwood to a series of waterfalls, the largest around 20 feet.

Otter Creek Wilderness

About 20,000 acres of dense second-growth forest in a bowl between Shavers Mountain and McGowan Mountain, drained by Otter Creek.

Smoke Hole Canyon

A steep, narrow limestone canyon where the South Branch of the Potomac cuts through Cave Mountain — excellent smallmouth fishing, quiet canoe water at the right levels, dispersed camping, caves in the walls and a nineteenth-century chapel at the upper end.

Kumbrabow State Forest

The highest state forest in West Virginia, 9,474 acres of red spruce and northern hardwood on Rich Mountain, with rustic cabins, native brook trout in Mill Creek and almost no one there.

Laurel Fork Wilderness

Two adjacent wilderness units, North and South, totaling around 12,000 acres along Laurel Fork — a beaver-worked stream valley with meadows, spruce and one of the quietest backpacking experiences in the state.

Stuart Recreation Area

A CCC-built recreation area on the Shavers Fork near Elkins with a campground, picnic shelters and river access — the practical basecamp for the central Monongahela National Forest and the Otter Creek and Cheat Mountain country..

Elk River

One of the finest and least-known trout fisheries in the Appalachians.

Holly River State Park

West Virginia's second-largest state park at 8,101 acres, in a narrow valley of hemlock and hardwood with waterfalls, cabins and a rugged trail network.

Cacapon River

One of the finest gentle canoe rivers in the East — clear, shallow, warm and slow, winding through farmland and forest with reliable smallmouth fishing and easy multi-day trips.

Greenbrier Valley Weekend

The most approachable region in the state: a rail-trail at under one percent grade, warm river paddling, a preserved eighteenth-century town, and limestone country with commercial show caves..

Elk River Fly Fishing Weekend

Cold tailwater below Sutton Dam holding wild browns, a sulphur hatch worth planning around, and smallmouth downstream when the trout water gets busy.