Bluestone Lake Dam spans the New River at Hinton, WV forming Bluestone Lake, the third largest lake in West Virginia. At summer pool Bluestone Lake covers 2,040 acres and is 10.7 miles long. Bluestone Dam was constructed as part of the Kanawha River Basin flood control system primarily to reduce major flood damages along the New, Kanawha, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers. Bluestone Dam was completed for operational purposes in January 1949 and completely finished in January 1952.

The New River is the best warm water fishery in West Virginia. Year after year, New River produces more citation game fish than any other warm water river in West Virginia. State fishing records have been recorded in the New River for smallmouth, white and striped bass. Bass (black, smallmouth, largemouth, rock, spotted, striped, hybrid striped and white), bluegill, catfish, crappie and muskellunge are all common species of fish found in the New River and Bluestone Lake. The State of West Virginia periodically stocks Indian Creek, which flows into New River above Bluestone Lake, with trout. West Virginia fishing licenses are required. [Bluestone Lake. www.nwk.usace.army.mil, 02/07/2008]

Largemouth Bass
With Bluestone Lake at 53 degree water temperature this is a great time to get out on the water and try hitting some deeper primary and secondary points. Largemouth bass will be feeding at this water temperature but will be much harder to catch. On Sunny warm afternoons its a great time to throw a crank bait, jigs or slow roll a spinnerbait at 5-10 foot on sunny points and drops off of sunny flats. Largemouth Bass will move into warm water on warm sunny days.

Smallmouth Bass
With Bluestone Lake at 53 degree water temperature this is a great time to get out on the water and try hitting some deeper primary and secondary points. Smallmouth bass will be feeding at this water temperature but will be much harder to catch. On Sunny warm afternoons its a great time to throw a crank bait, jigs or slow roll a spinnerbait at 5-10 foot on sunny points and drops off of sunny flats. Smallmouth Bass will move into warm water on warm sunny days.

Spotted Bass
With Bluestone Lake at 53 degree water temperature this is a great time to get out on the water and try hitting some deeper primary and secondary points. Spotted bass will be feeding at this water temperature but will be much harder to catch. On Sunny warm afternoons its a great time to throw a crank bait, jigs or slow roll a spinnerbait at 5-10 foot on sunny points and drops off of sunny flats. Spottted Bass will move into warm water on warm sunny days.

Crappie
The crappie fishing should be getting good to great now. Crappie function excellent in 53 degree water. Crappie will be nicely bunched up still and moving more aggresively than when the water temperature is in the 35 to 50 degree range. With baitfish getting more active, the crappie fishing will be good. Good luck today!

Catfish
The catfish family comprises of blue catfish, flathead catfish and channel catfish. Since catfish are warm water fish, they aren’t going to be very active in this water temperature. They will still be feeding, but catfish will only be found very deep and feeding very slowly. Your best bet is give some of the more active fish species in your lake a shot until the cats are active again.

Fishingnotes.com has developed a highly accurate and sophisticated water temperature modeling algorithm to determine the mean daily water temperature based on climatic and geophysical data for this lake. Some of the variables used to determine the mean daily water temperature include past weather trends, solar radiation, evaporation, lake size, and lake geometry.

Currently the accuracy of the estimated mean water temperature is within 4 degrees Fahrenheit of measured temperature value in approximately 90% of our lakes. However Fishingnotes.com is continuously updating our water temperature algorithms to improve the accuracy. You can help make the estimated water temperature for this lake more accurate by providing the water temperature readings when you are out on the water. To do this add a fishing report below with the actual water temperature at this lake. This will provide helpful data to correlate the water temperature algorithms with.

Temperature: 48

Barometric Pressure: 30.16 (High)
A high barometric pressure system is sitting over the lake. Fish will be heading to deeper water, or they will tuck away in cover. With the pressure high, it will be little more challenging to coax them to bite. Your best bet is to take the opportunity to go for a little larger fish. Don’t fish for quantity; it’s time to go for the trophy. Slow down your lures and presentation and get out in deeper water using your favorite plastics, worms, jigs, and finesse baits. With high barometric pressure on your lake, slow down that deep diving crank bait or grab your jerk bait and pause it a little longer.

Wind Speed: North at 09 Knots (10 MPH)

State Department of Wildlife and Parks
http://www.wvdnr.gov/fishing/fishing.sht...  

State Fishing Licensee
https://www.wvhunt.com/wizard/hflw000.as...  

State Parks
http://www.wvstateparks.com/  

State Fishing Information
http://www.wvdnr.gov/fishing/PDFFiles/20...  

State Fishing Records
http://www.wvdnr.gov/fishing/Records.sht...