Bass Fishing in Virginia

Lake Anna is a 13,000-acre Virginia reservoir split between a public side and a warm-water discharge side fed by the North Anna Nuclear Power Station, creating year-round fishing opportunities for largemouth bass, striped bass, and a surprisingly underrated spotted bass population.

Smith Mountain Lake is a 20,600-acre hydroelectric reservoir in the Blue Ridge foothills of Virginia, offering some of the best largemouth and smallmouth bass fishing in the Mid-Atlantic region, with clear water, abundant rocky points, and a healthy striped bass population that keeps prey fish skittish year-round.

Lake Gaston is a 20,000-acre Roanoke River impoundment straddling the Virginia–North Carolina border, offering a diverse bass fishery built around laydowns, rocky points, offshore humps, and one of the most productive striped bass and largemouth populations in the mid-Atlantic South.

Claytor Lake is a 4,475-acre Virginia Power impoundment on the New River in Pulaski County, Virginia, offering a diverse fishery headlined by smallmouth and largemouth bass across a mix of rocky bluffs, deep ledges, and wood cover.

The New River in Virginia and West Virginia offers some of the finest smallmouth bass fishing in the eastern United States, a free-flowing river system with dramatic gorge scenery, clear water, and a wild population of hard-fighting fish across hundreds of accessible miles.

The Potomac River is a nationally recognized largemouth bass fishery stretching through Maryland and Virginia, defined by tidal current, dense grass beds, and some of the highest bass-per-acre densities on the East Coast.

The Shenandoah River runs roughly 300 miles through the Valley of Virginia and West Virginia, offering some of the Mid-Atlantic's most productive smallmouth bass fishing across a mix of riffles, limestone ledges, and deep pools. Wading anglers and float-trippers alike target robust smallmouth populations alongside rock bass and occasional largemouth in the slower backwaters.

Kerr Lake (also called Buggs Island Lake) straddles the Virginia–North Carolina border, covering roughly 50,000 acres of timber-edged coves, submerged creek channels, and open main-lake points — making it one of the Southeast's most productive largemouth and striped bass fisheries.

Lake Moomaw is a deep, clear-water reservoir in Virginia's Alleghany Mountains, renowned for its pristine conditions and strong populations of smallmouth and largemouth bass.

South Holston Lake, a deep, clear impoundment on the Tennessee-Virginia border, is renowned for its trophy smallmouth bass and healthy population of largemouth, driven by a prolific blueback herring forage base.