The stocking schedule for the state comes in slowly over the course of January and February before finally hitting a breakneck routine in March and running through May. I grew up just a few miles from the Tygart Valley River in Barbour County, West Virginia. If I wanted to swim, I didn’t go to a pool. I went to the river. I love being in, on, and around moving water and just the thought of it makes me want to head out to the nearest stream right now. However, the Tygart doesn’t see much stocking action around where I’m from and I’ve only really gotten heavy into trout fishing in the last several years. Travel is just a part of the game. It’s not that big of a deal to me because I have always loved driving around West Virginia (except for in Morgantown of course).
There are some pretty decent trout holes within a short drive of the law school. The closest spots won’t receive much attention from the Division of Natural Resources until March. If you’re looking for a place to get your line wet, you can visit the WVDNR trout stocking website, here. There you’ll find the daily stocking schedule and a map function that will allow you to search for stocked waters by county, city, or stream name. Last season was a season of firsts for me. I caught my first Golden trout, first Brook trout, and my first Brown trout. I had only caught Rainbow trout prior to that. The Goldie was pretty exciting but the Brown was by far the nicest looking fish I had ever caught.
One of our very own Legal Writing professors, Professor Haught, is an avid trout fisher too.
