# fishing new river w.v.



## steelheadBob (Jul 6, 2004)

if none of you have ever smallmouth fished the new river in west virginia, you have to go, we go every spring for them for the weekend. this river is 99% rock bottom with alot of rapids and boulder shoots. I have to honestly say this river has produced the biggest smallmouth i have ever caught. Not to forget about the nature all around you, black bear walking the shores, the hills, and some of the biggest bucks youll ever see, if n e one wants info on some guides let me know


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## smallieguy (Apr 7, 2004)

Nice pics and yes I believe every thing you say about the fishing
in that river. Its been on my list for some time now.
To be honest I know I'm way to cheap to pay a guide to take me
fishing.


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## iwdavefish (Apr 30, 2004)

Is the river floatable in a canoe? I'm willing to portage around rapids.


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## Traylor Trash (Apr 4, 2006)

I fished the lake in your picture this past summer from the bank for an afternoon while my wife was resting, but I didn't get the chance to acutally fish the river. We are thinking of making a trip next summer with some friends because we were in love with the area. It is also one of the best white water rivers in the state. I will make sure to fish the river next trip. Ever have any luck with trout?


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## dinkbuster1 (Oct 28, 2005)

dang when were you there?! most of the year the river looks like this....full of rafters and 'yakers! i was down there this summer visiting family that live in nearby Fayettville, had a digital camera this year and took a bunch of pics from the same bridge you did. the smallie (red-eyes to the locals) fishing is really good down there as well as trout in the feeder streams. a canoe? lol, go ahead if your brave enough, not me . we used to go down there to the river all the time and camp out, swim, boat, build bon-fires and drink beer, pick black-berries, fish, and so on. the "tourism" and tree huggers have made it so bad though for the locals that they cant even do some of those things anymore that they used to enjoy.


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## Ted Dressel (Dec 16, 2006)

I' m going whitewater rafting on the New River in Aug.Already did the Upper and Lower twice. so we decided to do the NEW for a change.Aug. shouldn't be high water,so I figure that I'll do some smallie fishing the 2nd day that I'm there.If nothingelse the scenery is great!


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## K.C. (Jan 10, 2007)

Incredible looking river.

Some great photos there guys....thanks for sharing.
Love seeing new places that I've never heard of before..


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## dinkbuster1 (Oct 28, 2005)

heres a few more pics i took of the same areas while we were driving around sightseeing. first pic is of the river when they have the gates closed at summersville lake which feeds the river, it comes to a trickle. second is a pic of where my cousins and i used to ride our bikes to and would catch trout on nightcrawlers and zebco's. third is the Dam below "lovers leap", and the fourth shows the enormity of it all....check out the folks walking around the boulders below the Dam (one is near the upper left), now them's some big rocks!


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## Fish-N-Fool (Apr 12, 2004)

We go every year and yak, raft and fish. Last year we just yaked and fished.
Great scenery and good smallie fishing for #s, but we never caught anything huge. I guess after a spring smallie trip to Erie everything down there seems small  

Also if you are into cliff jumping Summersville Lake has many, many spots well known for jumping. Some at eye popping heights too; I watched a couple locals jump from 120 ft + one time! That was after they told us how their friend broke his foot the week before from the same cliff! We stick to the "lower level" cliffs


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## WISH IT WAS YOU (Jul 25, 2006)

dinkbuster1 said:


> heres a few more pics i took of the same areas while we were driving around sightseeing. first pic is of the river when they have the gates closed at summersville lake which feeds the river, it comes to a trickle. second is a pic of where my cousins and i used to ride our bikes to and would catch trout on nightcrawlers and zebco's. third is the Dam below "lovers leap", and the fourth shows the enormity of it all....check out the folks walking around the boulders below the Dam (one is near the upper left), now them's some big rocks!
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## liquidsoap (Oct 22, 2005)

I love the look of this place...


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## peple of the perch (Sep 13, 2004)

Those are some very nice pics. That does look like a fun place to go.


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## acklac7 (May 31, 2004)

Yeah, Ive always heard of the New, but never have seen pics! Thanks! The un-embeddedness of the substrate is truly remarkable, almost 100%. The higher the un-embeddedness rate the better the Smallmouth fishing. It's really sad to say that, at one point, every riffle in nearly every river in Ohio looked like this one.


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## Rooster (Apr 8, 2004)

We have been looking to plan a trip on the new for a few years now, but it just has not materialized. A few problems have prevented this trip, but we have not given up on the idea.

The inability to predict river levels makes it difficult to schedule a trip in advanced. Im afraid to take vacation time, as the river may be unfishable during that time frame. Or, even worse getting a flood in the middle of a 4-night trip! Also, none of my crew is familiar with the area, and we really dont know what section would be suitable for a multi-day float. Parking, suitable camping spots, fishable water, and serious rapids (anything above a mild Class III would be beyond our ability) are all a concern.

This is what we are looking to find, and any help would be appreciated. At least 4 days/3 nights on the water. Launching in the AM and floating to the first campsite each day. The three different camping areas would need to be within float (fishing) range. What time of year would be best? Im sure that spring/fall would be best for all day fishing, but the summer should offer more stable river conditions. What section of river would offer great fishing, suitable camping, and not be too technical to float with heavily loaded kayaks?

Thanks!


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## H2O Mellon (Apr 5, 2004)

I won a gift certificate for a free day of smallie fishing a few years back at the NWTF dinner in Georgetown, OH. I lost the darn thing though. I kicked my self in the rear for a year over loosing that thing!


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## steelheadBob (Jul 6, 2004)

Hey Rooster,
Ill get some numbers to some white water co.'s and take some photos of some maps, one thing you can look up is westvirginia.com,,, go to the top were it says wv bookmark, click on that and go to the whitewater and click on that, on the left side of the page youll see the river gauge's.heres some other photos i found.
me and dee at the end of the cass railroad, the state of Virginia is in the background








photo taken from the train








photo from our hotel room at hawks nest
















the next one is at the bottom of the dam

















but photos are nothing until you go down there in the fall.


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## steelheadBob (Jul 6, 2004)

and for anyone who likes to flyfish, gotta go and try ElkRiver w.v.... Catch browns,brooks and rainbows all year long


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## dinkbuster1 (Oct 28, 2005)

Quote: this pic is so nice it looks like trout heavan what kinda trout you get their i need to know how far this place is from canfield ohio[/QUOTE] go to mapquest.com and type in Fayetteville WVA and it will give you mileage and directions. from Dayton its about 4-1/2 hrs. really cant give ya directions to that little dam but i could take ya there by sight, no idea of the road names  really dont know what most of them trout were, they were brown/yellowish and had these huge spots on them. caught a few rainbows but most were them "unknowns". they were tasy though  BTW, there are some HUGE flatties in there too! my uncle caught a 60lb'er a few years back while "red-eye" fishing. i have never seen anyone cat-fishing in all the years i have went down and spent time there though, no doubt an un-tapped big cat fishery! one of these years i am going to go down and do some 'cattin while i am there.


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## BuckeyeFishinNut (Feb 8, 2005)

We have been looking at planning a trip to the New this upcoming season. When I was in High School I played on a soccer team that played all through WV and I have been down in the Beckley area a ton of times. From Columbus its a solid 4hr drive, atleast you can go 70+mph. There is a national park in the Gorge region and they have first come first serve camping for no fee. We looked at staying there, here is a map of their campgrounds, all are on the water.

http://www.nps.gov/archive/neri/camparea.htm

Here is the website for the park itself.

http://www.nps.gov/neri/

We really cant decide if we want to fish the New in WV or over in VA. I heard the fishing in VA is a little better and there aren't as many rapids and shoots. Lots of info on the New over on www.riversmallies.com

Jake


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## steelheadBob (Jul 6, 2004)

I do beleave that is wolf creek if i remember correct.(that little dam)well heres some websites of new river stuff for any who is interested. the first one i would recomend to the pope, its called harman's north fork cottages.
(www.wvlogcabins.com)
www.awrafts.com
www.wvaraft.com
www.goextreme.com
www.gauley.comthis one will take you out to some good fishing spots and feed ya lunch.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

I have done several rafting trips on the New and Gauley Rivers. We always had a great time. Thanks for posting the pictures. I have not been there for several years so these bring back some great memories. I always said I wanted to return to there some day and do some fishing but have never made that happen. I have not given up on it yet. I know someone asked about a canoe. I suppose anything is possible but you would never find me trying it. The rapids are so numerous that you would get nothing done but portaging unless you tried to run the rapids in which case you would end up floating the rest of the river with a canoe. If you have never been there to whitewater raft and you love water adventures then by all means check it out. It is truly awesome.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

Her is the otfitter that we used for all of our rafting trips.

Ace

There are several companies that run rafting services and I have never personally heard any bad stories from any that you should avoid. The guides at Ace knew their stuff and they knew the river extremely well which is critical on some areas. I know they offered some fishing packages as well but I never looked into them myself. I am sure you can find info on their web site.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

The Acr site has some great video footage of the rafting to give you an idea what it is like. Here is one of the videos.

Gauley Fall Season

They do videos of each trip and you can purchase it afterward if you wish. They also show it to the entire group once you return to the camp. That is a lot of fun as well.


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## Fallcreek (Mar 12, 2005)

I've fished the New River three times in inflatable rafts and using a guide company. We fished further up the river than what appears in most of the photos shown earlier. There are lots of rapids but not of the class found further down the river. We used a company out of Beaver, WV and every time it was great. Caught tons of smallmouth from dinks to monsters. The boats shown in the photo are perfect for this type of water and these were probably the best fresh water fishing experiences I've ever had. Highly recommend to anyone wanting a quality day on the water. 



















Guide service used was Twin Rivers Outfitters at http://www.wvbassguides.com/index.html


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## LittleMiamiJeff (Oct 1, 2005)

Fallcreek said:


> Highly recommend to anyone wanting a quality day on the water.
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## lip_jerkur (Jun 27, 2005)

Hey guys! I'm from Richwood and Summersville. I know every creek/river in the area as well as the greenbrier, new, cranberry, williams, gauley(my favorite). The smallmouth fishing is super, i wade every crik there, and the gauley and new also have walleyes in them. Many of these streams have native trout in them and i love to catch them. CAUTION: if you fish the new/gauley on the shore be aware of copperheads! anybody have any question or need any help give me a yell!Notice the reports never tell you about the fishing above the summersville dam, its always below. WELL KEPT SECRET!!!


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