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West Virginia Trout Fishing Regulations 2026

3 WV DEP trout water designations, 836 named waters — WV DEP's own data, compiled here so you can search it.

Last updated 2026-09-24 · rebuilt nightly from WV DEP data

Season dates

There are none to print. WVDNR sets no opening or closing date for trout: the West Virginia Fishing Regulations Summary 2026 carries a creel limit, a size column and twenty-nine named special-regulation waters, and no trout season anywhere in it. The one dated trout rule in the document is the delayed-harvest window — catch and release from 1 November to 15 May on five stretches — and it is in the special regulations below. Everything else runs on the statewide limit year-round.

Limits by species

West Virginia's trout limit is written over the species together — “Rainbow, Golden Rainbow, Brook, Tiger and Brown, 6 in any combination” — with no minimum size, so there is no per-species bag or size to print. The state's own native trout is the brook trout, and it carries no rule of its own.

WV DEP trout water designations

Every class WV DEP uses, the waters in it, and what the class means. Counts are of named waters in our copy of the state's data.

Special regulations

Water carrying a rule of its own — a closure, a gear restriction, or a named regulation — with the water it applies to.

• Daily limit · 6 trout in any combination, no minimum size
  The statewide limit, and it is written over the species together: “Rainbow, Golden Rainbow, Brook, Tiger and Brown — 6 in any combination”, minimum size “None”, possession limit 12. West Virginia Fishing Regulations Summary 2026, page 1. Jennings Randolph Lake follows Maryland's rules instead, as does the Potomac and the North Branch of the Potomac.
• Catch and release · Artificials only, barbless on multiple-hook lures, no trout in possession
  Nineteen named stretches. “Only artificial flies and lures made of metal, wood, feathers, hair, or synthetic material may be used or possessed”; multiple-hook lures must be barbless; “all trout caught must be returned to the water at once” and no trout may be in the angler's possession on the stream. Scented baits — Powerbait, Gulp — are named as illegal. Daylight hours only, except the three North Branch of the Potomac areas, which run 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. West Virginia Fishing Regulations Summary 2026, page 4. The extents are stretch-specific: the Blackwater is 3.5 miles below the county Route 29/1 bridge, the Cranberry 4.3 miles below the forks, the Slatyfork Elk 4.6 miles. Read the page for the one you want.
  Back Fork Elk River, Barkers Creek, Blackwater River, Bluestone River, Cranberry River, Elkhorn Creek, Elk River, Glade Creek, Guyandotte River, Middle Fork Williams River, Mill Creek, North Fork Cherry River and 7 more
• Delayed harvest · Catch and release 1 November – 15 May; general rules 16 May – 31 October
  Five stretches, and this is the only dated trout rule in the summary. West Virginia Fishing Regulations Summary 2026, page 5. Two of them — Paint Creek and the Clear Fork of the Guyandotte — carry no WV DEP trout designation at all, which is WVDNR and WV DEP answering different questions about the same water.
  Clear Fork, Middle Wheeling Creek, Paint Creek, Shavers Fork, Williams River
• Fly fishing only · Flies and streamers only, conventional fly tackle, all fish released
  Seven stretches. “Only artificial flies and streamers may be used or in possession”; spinning and spincast reels are prohibited; “all fish caught must be returned to water at once”. Daylight hours only, and the same scented-bait prohibition applies. West Virginia Fishing Regulations Summary 2026, page 5.
  Dogway Fork, Edwards Run, Milligan Creek, Red Run, Second Creek, Spring Run, Thorn Creek
• Reduced creel · 2 trout daily
  Stephens Lake, Raleigh County — the one water in the state with a trout creel below the statewide six. West Virginia Fishing Regulations Summary 2026, page 5.
• Restricted · Children under 15 and Class Q permit holders only, March – May
  A set of lakes, ponds and short stream sections managed for children 14 and under and for people with disabilities holding a Class Q permit, March to May. Daylight hours only, creel limit four trout, and another person may bait a hook or remove a fish. West Virginia Fishing Regulations Summary 2026, page 8.
• Gear · Two lines maximum on trout-stocked impoundments, 1 January – 31 May
  “It is illegal to fish with more than two (2) lines or poles in an impoundment stocked with trout by the WVDNR from January 1 – May 31.” West Virginia Fishing Regulations Summary 2026, page 13. It is also illegal to fish within 200 feet of DNR staff who are stocking.
• Licence · Trout stamp required
  A Class O trout stamp (10 dollars resident, Class OO 16 dollars nonresident) is required of licensed anglers fishing for trout, on top of the fishing licence. Residents who turned 65 before 1 January 2012, youth under 15, 100% service-connected disabled veterans and former POWs, and residents on military leave do not need one. West Virginia Fishing Regulations Summary 2026, pages 30-33.

Recent changes

Nothing has moved since the previous build. This page is rebuilt nightly against WVDNR's data and this section fills in the night a season, a limit or a classification changes.

Coldwater and warmwater rules

West Virginia does not regulate trout fishing by classification. WVDNR's rules attach to named stretches — nineteen catch-and-release, seven fly-fishing only, five delayed harvest — and everywhere else the statewide six-fish limit applies with no minimum size and no season. The class column above is WV DEP's Category B-2 trout water designation under 47 CSR 2, which is a different agency finding that a stream sustains a year-round trout population, and no rule on this page turns on it. Three of the special-regulation waters carry no designation at all. West Virginia publishes no thermal classification, so nothing here should be read as a statement about how cold a stream runs; and 47 CSR 2 Appendix A says in as many words that its list “is not intended to exclude any waters which meet the definition”, so an undesignated stream is unlisted rather than ruled out.

Trout fishing near a town in West Virginia

The same classification, asked the other way round: what WV DEP classifies as trout water within forty miles of one place, ranked by how much of it is in range. 28 towns in West Virginia have one — a town is on this list when the water near it is not the water near a bigger town down the road.

• Trout fishing near Charleston
• Trout fishing near Morgantown
• Trout fishing near Martinsburg
• Trout fishing near Beckley
• Trout fishing near Clarksburg
• Trout fishing near Bluefield
• Trout fishing near Hurricane
• Trout fishing near Elkins
• Trout fishing near Buckhannon
• Trout fishing near Keyser
• Trout fishing near Grafton
• Trout fishing near Lewisburg
• Trout fishing near Weston
• Trout fishing near Kingwood
• Trout fishing near Williamson
• Trout fishing near Madison
• Trout fishing near Spencer
• Trout fishing near Mannington
• Trout fishing near Romney
• Trout fishing near Logan
• Trout fishing near Glenville
• Trout fishing near Marlinton
• Trout fishing near Athens
• Trout fishing near Alderson
• Trout fishing near Clendenin
• Trout fishing near Carpendale
• Trout fishing near Sutton
• Trout fishing near Mill Creek

Licence and the official documents

We do not reproduce WVDNR's licence pages or its digest. These are the originals.

• Buy a West Virginia fishing licence →
  West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, official portal
• West Virginia Fishing Regulations Summary 2026 (PDF) →
  The document this page is a searchable compilation of
• WVDNR fishing regulations →
  Including any in-season change