Skip to Main Content

Virginia Reservoirs Largemouth Bass Fishing Ranking Report 2024

Fisheries biologists conduct periodic reservoir sampling throughout Virginia using daytime boat electrofishing to target and assess Largemouth Bass populations. Surveys are generally conducted in a manner allowing comparisons to be made concerning these populations. Since many anglers seek bass, and fish considered over 20 inches are considered “memorable” based on national metrics; the accompanying table provides rankings for abundance of bass over 20”. Lakes are sampled on a rotating schedule depending on several factors including use, past indices and volatility. Some lakes are sampled annually, while others may have a rotation lasting several years. Often, there is little or no significant change between surveys, but spring weather fronts sometimes play havoc with catch rates—if fish are too deep, they are not vulnerable to the gear.

The term “CPUE-M” (or Catch per Effort of Memorable bass) incudes catch rates of bass over 20”—an indication of true trophy potential. These numbers should help anglers choose a resource that may provide the best chance to catch an exceptionally large fish rather than numbers of medium sized bass (see CPUE-P or catch of 15”+ bass per hour).

Several factors can bias data (e.g., weather conditions, fish behavior), but samples were conducted with efforts to minimize these. All of these lakes are considered reservoirs (e.g., those impoundments exceeding 500 acres vs. “small impoundments”), but there is great variability in size.

The following is a summary with lakes ranked by CPUE-M:

Ranking Reservoir Size Year surveyed CPUE-M CPUE-P
1 Occoquan 2,100 2020 11 94
2 Sandy 740 2023 10 45
3 Chesdin Lake 3,100 2023 7 51
4 Briery Creek 845 2023 7 51
5 Smith Mountain Lake  20,600 2023 2 24
6 Leesville 3,270 2023 2 22
7 Lake Anna 9,600 2023 1 37
8 Carvins Cove 630 2023 1 29
9 Flannagan 1,143 2023 1 23
10 Philpott 2,880 2023 1 21
11 Buggs Island (Kerr Reservoir) 48,900 2023 1 19
12 Chickahominy Lake 1,230 2023 1 18
13 Lake Mooney 520 2023 1 7
14 Diascund Reservoir 1,110 2023 0 40
15 South Holston 7,580 2023 0 20
16 Beaverdam Swamp 635 2023 0 13
17 Claytor Lake 4,633 2023 0 6
18 Little Creek 947 2022 0 5