Above Webster Springs: a limestone creek that goes underground
The Elk starts near Slatyfork in Pocahontas County where Big Spring Fork and Old Field Fork meet. The Perfect Fly Store describes the first three and a half miles below that junction running through a canyon before the river sinks into caves; the dry bed above is called the Dries, and the water comes back up about two miles downstream at Elk Springs, where Elk Springs Resort and Fly Shop sits beside the resurgence in Monterville. Below that the river drops off a limestone ledge at Whittaker Falls with a county road alongside. It holds native brook trout and wild rainbows and browns, and the Perfect Fly Store puts some of the browns and rainbows in the 20-inch class.
Treat it like a spring creek with rocks in it. Dark Skies Fly Fishing's trip with Gil Willis of the Elk River Inn started with 8-inch wild rainbows and brookies in the Slatyfork water on a 1-weight and ended at dark on 14-inch browns in the sulphur hatch, where presentation decided everything. On The Fly South notes there is no cell service at Elk Springs and the nearest license vendor is 45 miles away in Elkins, so buy online before you arrive.
Two catch-and-release sections, and the stocked miles below
WVDNR's 2026 regulations list two catch-and-release sections on the upper river. The Slatyfork section in Pocahontas County runs 4.6 miles from the junction of Big Spring and Old Field forks downstream to the mouth of Dry Branch, including Props Run and Big Run, reached on foot from county Routes 219/2 and 219/12. The Randolph County section runs two miles from the Elk Springs Campground downstream to the Rose Run bridge, off county Route 49 about four miles west of Valley Head. On both, only artificial flies and lures are allowed, multi-hook lures must be barbless, nothing scented, fishing is daylight only, and every trout goes back at once.
From Rose Run downstream 18 miles to Webster Springs, the river is general-regulation stocked water on DNR's W-F schedule: once in January, twice in February, weekly from March through May and two fall stockings starting the third Monday of October. The statewide creel is six trout. On the whole Elk, including Sutton Lake, walleye from 20 to 30 inches must be released with a two-fish limit; black bass follow the statewide six-fish creel, and muskies the statewide one fish with a 30-inch minimum.
Sutton Dam's two cold miles
Sutton Dam in Braxton County, finished by the Corps in 1961 and 210 feet high, releases from a large, deep, cold pool. WVDNR stocks the tailwater from the dam two miles downstream on its BW-F schedule: twice a month February through April, once in May and two fall stockings. Hatchery manager Jim Hedrick told Wonderful West Virginia that brown, rainbow, golden rainbow, brook and tiger trout all go in, that the first mile below the dam is the best bet, and that fish rarely bite well on stocking day itself.
Below that the Elk becomes a warmwater river, and DNR biologist Jim Walker names largemouth and smallmouth, big walleye and large muskies, with fish stacking up against the dam because they cannot pass it. DNR's District 3 guide lists floats from Frametown to Duck (9 miles), Duck to Mary Chilton Park (16 miles) and King Shoals to Queen Shoals (3.5 miles). The federally endangered diamond darter lives in this river, so release anything you do not recognise.
Which gauge for which Elk
This page reads USGS 03194700 below Webster Springs, the bottom of the stocked upper river and the best single number for the water between Rose Run and Webster Springs. No shop publishes a wading range for it. The 120 to 500 cfs band shown is roughly the middle half of its June record since 1960, the heart of the sulphur season; June's median is about 235 cfs, April's about 760, and by September the median falls near 80, when the upper river is thin and warm. The Slatyfork and Elk Springs water, much higher in the drainage, runs smaller than this gauge suggests.
For the tailwater, use the Frametown gauge (03196600) below the dam and the Corps' Huntington District water management pages, which post Sutton Lake data. Sutton Lake fills during heavy rain to spare the towns downstream, and that stored water has to come out afterward, so a rising Frametown line in dry weather means the dam; stay out of the stocked pool until it drops.
The Elk Springs calendar
Elk Springs' own chart runs the year. Tiny black stoneflies and midges in the big pools in January, bigger black stones by late February, olives from the third week of March, Blue Quills in early April, then Quill Gordons with the Grannom in late April, the best soft-hackle fishing of the year. March Browns take over in the first week of May with Gray Fox a week later, and from the second week of May into July the sulphurs come off every evening. The Perfect Fly Store times the sulphurs to late May and June and adds Little Yellow Stoneflies in May and June. July and August turn to terrestrials and midges; September brings Paraleptophlebia nymphs, October the last brood of olives with the big Great Autumn Sedge, and November the little black stones again. Streamers are the brown trout play around the fall spawn.