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Home › Waters › West Virginia › Gauley River below Summersville Dam
Tailwater · Southern West Virginia, Nicholas County, the Gauley River immediately below Summersville Dam at the head of the Gauley River National Recreation Area · West Virginia

Gauley River below Summersville Dam Fishing Guides

The tailwater below Summersville Dam at the head of the Gauley River National Recreation Area, gauged for stage and rainfall but not discharge, and the most famous release-driven river in the East.

A concrete dam releasing water into the river below it
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Gauley River below Summersville Dam

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About the Gauley River below Summersville Dam

The Gauley River below Summersville Dam is one of the best known pieces of moving water in the eastern United States, and its reputation rests on a schedule rather than a season. The Corps of Engineers releases Summersville Lake through the autumn, and those releases turn the twenty-five miles below the dam into a world-class whitewater river for a few weeks known simply as Gauley Season. Below the dam the river enters the Gauley River National Recreation Area and runs through a deep, boulder-choked sandstone gorge on its way to the New River.

One thing to be clear about on this gauge: it reports river stage and rainfall, but it carries no discharge series. There is no flow number to read here, so the stage reading is what you work from, and for this particular river the authoritative information is the published release schedule for Summersville Dam rather than any gauge trace. Anyone planning a trip should be reading the release calendar first and treating the stage series as a supporting indicator.

The fishing is genuinely good and genuinely overshadowed by the rafting. Smallmouth bass are the backbone of the river below the gorge, holding in the pockets and eddies behind the boulders, with rock bass alongside them. The cold water coming out of the dam supports stocked trout in the upper tailwater, and walleye and muskellunge are present in the slower water further down. Fishing is best in the long stretches between releases, when the river drops and clears.

Access is the challenge and the character. The gorge is steep and largely roadless, so the put-in below the dam, Mason Branch and Swiss are the practical points, and most people see the river from a raft. Summersville is the base, and the commercial outfitters there run the river through the release season.

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Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

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5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

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Posting to Gauley River below Summersville Dam.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Summersville - the Nicholas County seat just north of the dam, with lodging, outfitters and full services.
Summersville Dam - the Corps of Engineers structure controlling the river, and the put-in for the upper gorge.
Summersville Lake - the reservoir above the dam, a clear-water fishery and dive site in its own right.
Gauley River National Recreation Area - the National Park Service unit protecting the gorge below the dam.
Swiss - the community at the lower end of the gorge, the usual take-out on the river.
New River Gorge National Park - the neighbouring park where the Gauley meets the New, with more guided water.
Fayetteville - the outfitter town south, the centre of the region's guided rafting and climbing trade.

Seasons

Spring: high, cold and pushy with spring runoff, better for stocked trout in the upper tailwater than for bass.
Summer: low water between releases is the best fishing of the year, with smallmouth in the boulder pockets.
Fall: Gauley Season, when scheduled releases make this a premier whitewater river and fishing takes a back seat.
Winter: cold and unsettled with little activity, and access into the gorge becomes difficult.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Gauley River below Summersville Dam?

Anglers target Bluegill, Brook Trout, Brown Trout, Channel Catfish, Common Carp, Flathead Catfish, Freshwater Drum, Largemouth Bass, Muskellunge, Rainbow Trout, Rock Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Spotted Bass, Walleye on the Gauley River below Summersville Dam in West Virginia.

Where can you access the Gauley River below Summersville Dam?

Summersville - the Nicholas County seat just north of the dam, with lodging, outfitters and full services. Summersville Dam - the Corps of Engineers structure controlling the river, and the put-in for the upper gorge. Summersville Lake - the reservoir above the dam, a clear-water fishery and dive site in its own right. Gauley River National Recreation Area - the National Park Service unit protecting the gorge below the dam. Swiss - the community at the lower end of the gorge, the usual take-out on the river. New River Gorge National Park - the neighbouring park where the Gauley meets the New,...

When is the best time to fish the Gauley River below Summersville Dam?

Spring: high, cold and pushy with spring runoff, better for stocked trout in the upper tailwater than for bass. Summer: low water between releases is the best fishing of the year, with smallmouth in the boulder pockets. Fall: Gauley Season, when scheduled releases make this a premier whitewater river and fishing takes a back seat. Winter: cold and unsettled with little activity, and access into the gorge becomes difficult.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Gauley River below Summersville Dam?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the West Virginia agency site: https://wvdnr.gov/fishing/fishing-regulations/