Twenty-two days that belong to the rafts
Check the calendar before anything else. The Corps of Engineers sets the fall releases from Summersville Dam known as Gauley Season, and in 2026 they run from Friday, September 11 through October 17: 22 release days spread across the weekends, at a typical 2,800 cfs on the Upper Gauley, with the Lower Gauley getting the same flow the day after each Upper release. West Virginia Public Broadcasting counts more than 60,000 visitors for the five weeks, most of them in rafts running Class IV and V rapids.
On those days nobody should be wading or fishing from a small boat in the gorge. Plan a Gauley trip for the weekdays in between, or better, for spring or after mid-October; the National Park Service calls spring and fall the best fishing seasons anyway, because fish feed hardest while water temperatures are moving between winter cold and summer warmth. In 2026 the fall trout stocking below the dam is due to begin two days after the final release.
The other eleven months: remote water and a few access points
Outside the season, Summersville's summer outflow generally tracks inflow, and a RootsRated piece published by Hook 360 puts the typical figure at 100 to 200 cfs from the dam unless it has been unusually rainy. At that level the river below the dam is easy to walk and wade, but it runs through 25 miles of steep gorge in the Gauley River National Recreation Area with few roads down to it. The NPS lists three public access points, Gauley Tailwaters, Masons Branch and Woods Ferry, and West Virginia Tourism adds Upper Swiss near the bottom; Masons Branch, Woods Ferry and Upper Swiss have parking and launches. Much of the land inside the park boundary is private, so ask before you cross it.
The only reliably busy spot is the tailwater itself, reached from US 19 south of Summersville by WV Route 129, where the Gauley Tailwaters area has public parking and designated primitive campsites. Downstream, getting to fish means scrambling, and the NPS asks anglers not to wade deeper than their knees.
Stocked trout under the dam, and the rules below it
WVDNR stocks the Summersville Lake tailwater from the dam two miles downstream on its BW-F schedule: twice a month February through April, once in May, and once a week for two weeks starting the third Monday of October, which in 2026 falls just after the last release. The statewide trout creel is six. Walleye from 20 to 30 inches must go back on the Gauley and its tributaries outside Summersville Lake, two a day with one over 30; in Summersville Lake itself, from the dam up to Persinger Creek, the creel is eight with the same protected range. Black bass follow the statewide six-fish limit with no size minimum, and muskellunge the statewide one fish at 30 inches.
Everyone fishing inside the recreation area needs a West Virginia license, and the NPS also points anglers to the state's fish consumption advisories in the regulations booklet before keeping fish.
What the Belva gauge reads
USGS 03192000 sits above Belva, near the bottom of the Gauley just before it meets the New, so it adds the Meadow River and the other gorge tributaries to whatever Summersville is releasing. The gauge directly below the dam (03189600) has not reported since 2003, which makes Belva the working number. It read about 4,400 cfs on September 24, 2026, in the middle of release season. No outfitter publishes a fishing range for it; the 350 to 1,300 cfs band shown is roughly the middle half of its July and August record since 1965, when releases follow inflow. September's median of about 1,130 cfs is inflated by release days, and winter medians run 2,600 to 3,800 cfs. A jump of a couple of thousand cfs on a dry Friday in September is the dam.
Trout at the top, walleye and smallmouth at the bottom
Species sort themselves by distance from the dam. Hook 360's guide describes big muskies and trout below Summersville and large walleye, muskies and smallmouth toward the New River confluence, and notes that WVDNR stocked walleye by helicopter in 2015 to reach pools no truck could. The NPS lists trout, smallmouth, walleye and muskellunge as the park's fish and recommends early morning and late evening. For flies, think tailwater trout at the top (midges, nymphs and small streamers in spring and late fall) and smallmouth patterns in the lower gorge: crayfish and hellgrammites along the ledges, minnow streamers for walleye in the deep pools, and big flies for muskie as the water cools.