West Virginia Trout Stocking Report 2026

Every sentence here comes from the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR), and each section names its sources. Updated .

The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR) raises five kinds of trout at seven cold-water hatcheries: rainbow, golden rainbow, brook, brown and tiger. It stocks lakes and streams from January to May, and about 40 of them again in the last two weeks of October. Its stocking report is a list of the waters stocked each day, posted by the end of the business day on its fish stocking page and on a hotline, 304-558-3399. No stocking is announced ahead of time.

From WVDNR: History and Purpose of West Virginia Fish Hatcheries, WVDNR: Your Guide to Winter Fishing in West Virginia, WVDNR: Your 2026 Guide to Fall Trout Fishing in West Virginia and WVDNR: West Virginia Fish Stocking.

The WVDNR trout stocking report

The waters stocked, added the day they are stocked and posted by the end of each business day. It shows stockings that have happened, never ones to come. Check it, or call 304-558-3399, late on a weekday afternoon. A stocking missed for bad weather is made up with extra runs or extra fish in a later stocking.

Open the WVDNR Fish Stocking list
  • 2026 Fishing Regulations Summary, trout stocking pages: Pages 6 and 7 list every lake, pond and stream WVDNR stocks with trout, by county, each with a code for how often it is stocked through the year. Waters coded F are stocked again in the fall, once a week for two weeks beginning the third Monday of October. Find your water in the lakes and ponds table on page 6 or the streams table on page 7 and read its code against the key at the top of page 6. A water marked with an asterisk may not be stocked in 2026 because of dam maintenance.

From WVDNR: West Virginia Fish Stocking, WVDNR: Trout stockings return to West Virginia waters (8 January 2026) and WVDNR: 2026 Fishing Regulations Summary (PDF).

When West Virginia stocks trout

Winter and spring

Stockings run from January to May. WVDNR announced their return on 8 January 2026, and in some weeks it puts out a release listing every water stocked that week. The Gold Rush adds golden rainbow trout over two weeks of spring. In 2026, its ninth year, it ran from 30 March to 11 April at 69 lakes and streams, with 50,000 golden rainbows, 100 of them carrying a numbered tag for a prize drawing. How many trout a water gets in a year is set mainly by its size.

Fall

In the last two weeks of October, about 40 lakes and streams get bigger trout than the winter and spring fish, most of them 1 to 2 pounds, one stocking a week for two weeks. In 2026 the fall stockings are the weeks of 19 and 26 October. In 2025 the fall stockings also carried 6,500 pounds of monster trout of 3 to 6 pounds across 41 lakes and streams, and 100 of them wore a bright pink tag for the Monster Trout Contest. In the low water of fall 2025, hatchery staff stocked only the deeper sections of a stream, the ones that could hold the fish.

From WVDNR: Your Guide to Winter Fishing in West Virginia, WVDNR: Trout stockings return to West Virginia waters (8 January 2026), WVDNR: WVDNR stocks 38 waters during week of Feb. 2 (9 February 2026), WVDNR: WVDNR stocks 83 waters during week of May 4 (13 May 2026), WVDNR: West Virginia Gold Rush 2026 Guide, WVDNR: History and Purpose of West Virginia Fish Hatcheries, WVDNR: Your 2026 Guide to Fall Trout Fishing in West Virginia, WVDNR: 2026 Fishing Regulations Summary (PDF) and WVDNR: WVDNR Announces Return of Monster Trout Contest (23 October 2025).

Rules on stocked water

  • Anyone 15 or older needs a West Virginia fishing license, and fishing for trout takes a trout stamp as well, whether or not you keep a fish. Youth under 15, resident or not, need no trout stamp.
  • The statewide limit is 6 trout a day, any mix of rainbow, golden rainbow, brook, tiger and brown, with no minimum size and 12 in possession. Special waters have their own rules.
  • On the catch-and-release trout streams, every trout goes back and none may be in your possession there, and only artificial flies and lures are allowed, with no scented baits such as PowerBait or Gulp.
  • The delayed-harvest streams are catch and release from 1 November to 15 May and follow the general rules from 16 May to 31 October.
  • The fly-fishing-only streams allow flies and streamers on conventional fly tackle only; spinning and spincast reels are not allowed.
  • From March through May the Children and Class Q fishing areas are open only to anglers 14 or younger and to people with disabilities holding a Class Q permit, with a limit of four trout.

From WVDNR: Trout stockings return to West Virginia waters (8 January 2026), WVDNR: Beginners Guide to West Virginia's Fishing Regulations and WVDNR: 2026 Fishing Regulations Summary (PDF).

How to hear about a stocking

  • Stockings are posted daily during the season on WVDNR's fish stocking page and on the Hunting and Fishing Hotline, 304-558-3399.
  • In some weeks WVDNR also puts out a news release naming every lake and stream stocked that week.

From WVDNR: 2026 Fishing Regulations Summary (PDF), WVDNR: West Virginia Fish Stocking, WVDNR: WVDNR stocks 38 waters during week of Feb. 2 (9 February 2026) and WVDNR: WVDNR stocks 83 waters during week of May 4 (13 May 2026).

Worth knowing before you go looking

  • The list shows only waters already stocked. Nobody at WVDNR or its hatcheries will tell you a date ahead of time.
  • A stocking missed for bad weather is made up before the end of the month, weather permitting, so a water can get more fish on a later run.
  • The Trout Stocking Map is a map of trout water, not of stockings: its shaded streams are waters managed for trout and its markers are access points.

From WVDNR: Trout stockings return to West Virginia waters (8 January 2026), WVDNR: West Virginia Fish Stocking, WVDNR: WVDNR stocks 38 waters during week of Feb. 2 (9 February 2026) and WVDNR: West Virginia Trout Stocking Map.

Which day to fish it

The schedule says where the fish went in. Which day to go is a different question: the forecast scores each day of the week for trout at the water you pick, from its water temperature, the wind and the weather.

See the week for rainbow trout

Species guides: Rainbow Trout · Brown Trout · Brook Trout

Sources

Every sentence above was read on one of these pages, and a check re-reads each quoted line against the page it came from.

Spotted something out of date or plain wrong here? Tell us and we will check it.