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Home › Waters › West Virginia › South Branch Potomac River
River · Potomac Highlands · West Virginia

South Branch Potomac River Fishing Guides

A limestone-influenced smallmouth river running through the Trough and the Smoke Hole Canyon, one of the best float fisheries in the mid-Atlantic and a serious musky river.

Whitewater dropping through a boulder-strewn Appalachian stream
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the South Branch Potomac River

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

About the South Branch Potomac River

The South Branch of the Potomac runs north from Highland County, Virginia, through Franklin, the Smoke Hole Canyon, Petersburg, Moorefield, the Trough and Romney, and joins the North Branch near Green Spring. Limestone geology gives it fertile, alkaline water, and the result is a smallmouth bass river that grows fish faster and bigger than the freestone rivers around it.

Two reaches define the guided fishing. The Smoke Hole Canyon between Cabins and Big Bend is a remote, walled gorge with excellent smallmouth and, in the colder upper reaches, stocked and holdover trout. The Trough, a five-mile canyon between Moorefield and Romney where the only road is a railroad and bald eagles nest on the cliffs, is the classic float and one of the better smallmouth trips in the East. Between and below those, the river runs through farm valleys with ledges, grass beds and long pools.

The South Branch is also a genuine musky river. A small group of guides fish nothing else here through the cold months, and the river produces fish that would be respectable in the Midwest.

The Springfield gauge reads the whole basin near the mouth. Summer flows in the low hundreds of cfs wade and float comfortably; a dry August can leave the shallow reaches too thin for a loaded boat. The river responds quickly to storms in the Alleghenies, colors up, and clears within a couple of days.

Moorefield, Petersburg and Romney are the towns. Public access is decent but many banks are private farm land, so floating is the practical way to fish it.

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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.

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Posting to South Branch Potomac River.

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.

Flow alert

Tell me when the South Branch Potomac River cfs

Now: 1,410 cfs, read 2:30 am CDT, Mon Oct 19, 2026 (USGS 01608500, SOUTH BRANCH POTOMAC RIVER NEAR SPRINGFIELD, WV).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Franklin and Upper Tract: upper river access in Pendleton County.
Smoke Hole Canyon: Monongahela National Forest access at Big Bend and Smoke Hole campgrounds.
Petersburg: town access below the canyon.
Moorefield and Old Fields: valley accesses above the Trough.
The Trough: floated from Moorefield-area put-ins to the Romney takeout, no road access in between.
Romney, Blue Beach and Springfield: lower river accesses near the gauge.

Seasons

March through May: pre-spawn smallmouth, high water, stocked trout in the upper reaches.
June through August: the main float season, topwater smallmouth, low clear water in late summer.
September and October: the best month, aggressive fish and easy floating.
November through February: musky season; smallmouth stack in the deep winter holes.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the South Branch Potomac River?

As of Oct 19, 2:30 am, the USGS gauge SOUTH BRANCH POTOMAC RIVER NEAR SPRINGFIELD, WV reads 1,410 cfs, the 84th percentile for this date, with water temperature 57.2 F. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the South Branch Potomac River?

Anglers target Brown Trout, Channel Catfish, Muskellunge, Rainbow Trout, Rock Bass, Smallmouth Bass on the South Branch Potomac River in West Virginia.

Are there fishing guides on the South Branch Potomac River?

GuidedFloats lists 1 guide and outfitters on the South Branch Potomac River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the South Branch Potomac River?

Franklin and Upper Tract: upper river access in Pendleton County. Smoke Hole Canyon: Monongahela National Forest access at Big Bend and Smoke Hole campgrounds. Petersburg: town access below the canyon. Moorefield and Old Fields: valley accesses above the Trough. The Trough: floated from Moorefield-area put-ins to the Romney takeout, no road access in between. Romney, Blue Beach and Springfield: lower river accesses near the gauge.

When is the best time to fish the South Branch Potomac River?

March through May: pre-spawn smallmouth, high water, stocked trout in the upper reaches. June through August: the main float season, topwater smallmouth, low clear water in late summer. September and October: the best month, aggressive fish and easy floating. November through February: musky season; smallmouth stack in the deep winter holes.

Where are the fishing regulations for the South Branch Potomac River?

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