Photo by Michael Skinner.

Vivid memories of the trophy 10-pounder still keep me up at night. The vicious strike, a frantic battle, and one last boat side lunge that snapped my line. What a nightmare! My first 10-pound bass, inches from outstretched fingers, and then it was gone.

One of the most basic, yet sound, theories regarding trophy bass is that to consistently catch lunkers you must fish where they live. The more time anglers spend bass fishing in trophy-yielding water, the odds of catching trophy bass increase.

Surprisingly, my first encounter with a 10-pound bass didn’t take place in Florida or California but on West Virginia’s very own Stonewall Jackson Lake. Stonewall Jackson happens to be the East’s largest catch-and-release impoundment for black bass. While 10-pounders are still rare this far north, Stonewall Jackson sure has plenty of trophy bass.

Long noted as the state’s premier bass lake, Stonewall Jackson is one of West Virginia’s largest impoundments at 2,650 surface acres. Stonewall Jackson Lake is best known for its abundance of high-quality habitat, and the lake features an unbelievable amount of fishable water. Stonewall Jackson Lake has an average depth of 15 feet and contains acres of submerged timber.

One aspect that separates Stonewall Jackson from other lakes is the number of coves and no-wake zones that provide secluded fishing for anglers. These days, a quiet day on the water without interference from other boats can be refreshing. Big bass, tons of fishable water, and quality on-the-water experiences keep anglers coming back to this Lewis County impoundment.

Stonewall Jackson is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lake managed for flood control, so each year the impoundment experiences an obvious drawdown. Usually in September, the lake is lowered approximately 5 feet to catch excess winter and early spring precipitation. However, Stonewall Jackson fills quickly once the Corps starts retaining water in April.

IS IT STILL NO. 1?
Since the lake was impounded 17 years ago, Stonewall has been the best bass lake in West Virginia, but some anglers feel that trophy bass fishing in the lake is starting to decline. I’ll address the decline theory later in the article, but first, the numbers don’t lie.

The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR) has tracked bass tournament data from state waters for nearly 40 years. Significant information, such as catch rates and individual weights of tournament bass, has been recorded.

Even though the catch-and-release regulation prohibits conventional weigh-in tournaments, bass tournaments can be held on Stonewall Jackson using a “paper” tournament format where bass are caught, measured and released in the presence of a witness; hence, Stonewall Jackson is included in the historic data set.

An analysis of the bass tournament data by the DNR indicates that a combination ranking of catch rates (number of fish caught per hour) and quality-sized bass (biggest bass) remain higher in Stonewall Jackson than any other reservoir in the state.

Catching plenty of bass is fun, but most anglers come to Stonewall to catch “once-in-a-lifetime” trophy bass. And many times, catch them they do.

West Virginia DNR sampling data also shows that while Stonewall Jackson is still the number one bass lake in the state, the margin of difference has decreased significantly. Once far superior to other West Virginia lakes, data now indicates that impoundments such as Cheat, Summersville and East Lynn lakes are gaining quickly in the rankings.