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Virginia Reservoirs Ranked for Largemouth Bass Fishing

VDGIF aquatic biologists spend considerable effort and resources to manage, enhance, and protect largemouth bass populations in Virginia's public fishing reservoirs, lakes, and ponds. Most of these waters are sampled each year, or every few years, to assess current largemouth bass population parameters such as age and growth, spawning success, and size distribution. These population samples are generally collected using daytime, boat electrofishing gear targeting largemouth bass and are conducted in a manner that allows several comparisons to be made concerning fish populations. Since many Virginia anglers target largemouth bass, and fish larger than 15 inches are considered "preferred" nationwide; the following summary contains information about bass over 15 inches (preferred size).

Relative stock density of preferred fish (RSD-P below) is the proportion of bass in a population over eight inches (stock size or recruits) that are also at least 15 inches. Thus, this index describes the size structure of the population and the bigger the number, the higher the percentage of big bass (>15 inches) in the population. Catch-per-unit-effort of preferred fish (CPUE-P below) is a measure of how many bass over 15 inches are collected by biologists during a set unit of effort (in this case, 1-hour of electrofishing). Thus, the higher the number, the more abundant big bass were during the sample.

Several factors can bias these data (e.g., weather conditions, fish behavior), but samples were conducted with efforts to minimize these biases. The following is a summary of these data with lakes ranked by CPUE-P and divided into the four management regions of the state. Those lakes ranked at the top of the table will provide excellent opportunities for anglers to catch quality largemouth bass. You might notice that some of the large reservoirs are ranked lower than you might expect. Smaller reservoirs normally have higher sampling efficiency and will thus rank higher based on this evaluation. This is a guide for anglers to use and not necessarily the entire picture of Virginia bass fisheries but it will provide a good place to start. We hope you find this useful.

Region I (Southeast - Tidewater)

Reservoir Rank Year Size (ac) County CPUE-P RSD-P
Waller Mill 1 2011 360 York 39 57
Chesdin 2 2010 3,100 Chesterfield 37 69
Prince 3 2010 777 Suffolk 35 66
Meade 4 2010 512 Suffolk 25 61
Western Branch 5 2010 1,579 Suffolk 24 94
Gardy’s Millpond 6 2011 75 Northumberland 24 35
Trashmore 7 2010 52 Virginia Beach 23 65
Sandy Bottom Pond 8 2011 12 City of Hampton 23 53
Lake Maury 9 2010 165 Newport News 22 71
Cohoon 10 2010 510 Suffolk 22 66
Chickahominy Lake 11 2011 1,230 New Kent 22 27
Diascund 12 2011 1,110 James City 21 33
Harwood’s Mill 13 2011 265 York 20 68
Beaverdam Swamp 14 2011 635 Gloucester 19 36
Burnt Mills 15 2006 610 Isle of Wight 18 41
Smith 16 2007 222 Virginia Beach 17 39
Speight’s Run 17 2008 197 Suffolk 15 37
Airfield 18 2010 62 Sussex 12 48
Chandler’s Millpond 19 2011 75 Westmoreland 12 16
Woodstock Pond 20 2011 7.5 York 11 10
Swift Creek 21 2010 156 Chesterfield 10 20
Lee Hall 22 2011 230 Newport News 8 40
Lakeview 23 2010 42 Colonial Heights 8 20
Little Creek 24 2010 947 James City 8 17
Back Bay (creeks) 25 2010 22,000 Virginia Beach 7 28
Finger (Lone Star Lakes) 26 2007 22 Suffolk 6 60
Harrison Lake 27 2010 82 Charles City 5 13
Emporia 28 2009 210 Emporia 2 11
Oak Grove 29 2010 70 Chesapeake 0 0

Region II (South-central)

Reservoir Rank Year Size (ac) County CPUE-P RSD-P
Lake Burton 1 2011 76 Pittsylvania 53 68
Smith Mountain 2 2011 20,600 Bedford, Franklin 33 41
Briery Creek 3 2010 845 Prince Edward 32 22
Sandy River 4 2011 740 Prince Edward 30 33
Fairystone 5 2008 168 Patrick 25 32
Carvins Cove 6 2009 630 Roanoke 24 27
Bear Creek 7 2008 42 Cumberland 23 39
Stonehouse 8 2011 41 Amherst 21 15
Brunswick 9 2008 150 Brunswick 21 30
Kerr (Buggs Island) 10 2011 48,900 Mecklenburg 21 24
Philpott 11 2011 2,880 Henry, Patrick 20 30
Horsepen 12 2011 19 Buckingham 19 17
Leesville 13 2010 3,400 Pitts., Bedford 17 33
Conner 14 2008 110 Halifax 17 25
Gordon 15 2008 157 Mecklenburg 16 32
Nottoway 16 2011 188 Nottoway 16 10
Martinsville 17 2010 175 Henry 15 12
Mill Creek 18 2010 189 Amherst 11 10
Nelson 19 2010 40 Henry 9 5
Thrasher 20 2011 36 Amherst 7 4
Prince Edward 21 2009 27 Prince Edward 3 7
Amelia 22 2011 100 Amelia 2 2
Holliday 23 2008 145 Buckingham 1 2
Slate River Watershed 24 2008 38 Buckingham 0 0

Region III (Southwest)

Reservoir Rank Year Size (ac) County CPUE-P RSD-P
Rural Retreat 1 2009 90 Wythe 16 24
Gatewood 2 2009 162 Pulaski 16 22
Flannagan 3 2009 1,143 Dickenson 15 31
South Holston 4 2010 7,580 Washington 14 46
Lake Witten 5 2010 52 Tazewell 14 23
Claytor 6 2009 4,363 Pulaski 10 38
North Fk Pound 7 2009 154 Wise 9 27
Hidden Valley 8 2010 62 Washington 8 19
Bark Camp 9 2010 48 Scott 7 20
Lovill's Creek 10 2009 55 Carroll 3 5

Region IV (North-central)

Reservoir Rank Year Size (ac) County CPUE-P RSD-P
Pelham 1 2010 255 Culpeper 83 73
Arrowhead 2 2009 34 Page 42 13
Occoquan 3 2007 2,100 Fairfax 39 52
Anna 4 2011 9,600 Spotsylvania 39 48
Burke 5 2010 218 Fairfax 36 50
Fluvanna-Ruritan 6 2011 50 Fluvanna 33 34
Motts 7 2008 160 Spotsylvania 32 35
Silver 8 2010 25 Prince William 32 21
Beaverdam Creek 9 2008 350 Loudoun 28 47
Laura 10 2006 44 Shenandoah 25 14
Powhatan (upper) 11 2011 34 Powhatan 24 38
Germantown 12 2008 109 Fauquier 23 17
Powhatan (lower) 13 2011 37 Powhatan 22 49
Gordonsville 14 2006 75 Louisa 22 44
Fairfax 15 2008 28 Fairfax 22 31
Rivanna River 16 2010 450 Albemarle 20 22
Frederick 17 2008 117 Frederick 17 11
Toiter Creek 18 2006 66 Albemarle 16 44
Brittle 19 2010 77 Fauquier 16 28
Robertson 20 2011 26 Rockbridge 16 6
Mountain Run 21 2010 75 Culpeper 15 7
Abel 22 2009 185 Stafford 14 20
Walnut Creek 23 2011 45 Albemarle 14 18
Ni 24 2007 411 Spotsylvania 13 30
Hunting Run 25 2011 420 Spotsylvania 13 16
Shenandoah 26 2008 36 Rockingham 13 9
Breckinridge 27 2006 47 Stafford 12 9
Lunga 28 2005 477 Stafford 11 13
Orange 29 2011 124 Orange 8 10
Albemarle 30 2008 35 Albemarle 7 9
Beaver Creek 31 2011 104 Albemarle 7 4
Curtis 32 2009 91 Stafford 6 8
Chris Green 33 2011 62 Albemarle 6 7
Moomaw 34 2011 2,530 Bath 5 39
Northeast Creek 35 2008 187 Louisa 5 10
Smith 36 2007 250 Stafford 5 7
Lower Sherando 37 2011 26 Augusta 5 5
Accotink 38 2009 90 Fairfax 2 10