Cranberry River

The easy, road-accessible water below the gate — a lower-gradient, wider freestone of 30-to-40-foot riffles, boulder pocket water, and pools, crystal clear and stocked heavily on top of a wild population. The Nicholas County road and FR 76 run alongside, with Woodbine Picnic Ground the primary access and parking. The showpiece is the Woodbine Cranberry: a 1.25-mile catch-and-release, artificial-lures-only reach from the Woodbine Picnic Ground down to the mouth of Jakeman Run — the most restrictive gear reg on the river and the easiest quality water to reach. The USGS gauge near Richwood sits in this reach; the water warms into the upper 60s by midsummer, so push up into the backcountry when it does.

Best for: Stocked and wild rainbow trout, brown trout, and hatchery golden rainbows on artificial lures and flies, with the Woodbine catch-and-release reach the pick of the accessible water.

The heart of the walk-in water below the Dogway Fork Bridge, running general trout regulations down to the lower gate near Woodbine. Forest Road 76 traces the river the whole way — closed to motorized traffic, so it's still bike-or-boot fishing — through a mix of long riffles, pocket water, and deep pools that hold wild and holdover rainbows and browns plus the odd brook trout. The Woodbine-to-Camp-Splinter sub-reach in here is often called the best water on the river. This is prime pocket-water prospecting away from the stocking-truck crowds of the lower river.

Best for: Wild rainbow trout and brown trout, searched with attractor dries, nymphs through the pockets, and streamers for browns in the deeper pools.

The river's signature special-reg tributary — a roughly six-mile, tannin-stained fork the WV DNR has limed since 1988, entering the mainstem at the Dogway Fork Bridge midway down the backcountry. Its full length is catch-and-release, fly-fishing-only, the marquee fly-only water on the Cranberry, holding wild brook and holdover trout in cold, dark water. Reach it on foot or by bike; the C&R ethic runs the whole fork.

Best for: Brook and holdover trout on dry flies and light nymphs, worked upstream with a stealthy approach on this catch-and-release, fly-only water.

Small, tight native brook trout water dropping off the Allegheny plateau in steep pocket water and little plunge pools under heavy canopy. An old Forest Service road parallels the fork and ends at the North Fork Shelter at the North/South Fork confluence, but it's foot-and-bike access only. The WV DNR has limed the North Fork since 1993 to buffer the soft, acidic freestone water, and a designated quarter-mile catch-and-release section protects the wildest, most native water on the system. A dead USGS gauge (03187300) sits upstream on this fork but streams nothing, so read the mainstem gauge downstream only for whether the mountain is wet.

Best for: Wild native brook trout on small bushy attractor dries and a dropped bead-head nymph, fished upstream with short-line, high-stick tactics and a careful stalk in the clear water.

The best of the walk-in mainstem and the longest special-reg stretch on the river — a 4-plus-mile catch-and-release reach running from the mouth of the North Fork downstream to the Dogway Fork Bridge. Long riffles, boulder pocket water, and deep plunge pools hold wild and holdover rainbows and browns alongside brookies in cold, clear water, all of it bounded by Forest Road 76, which is closed to vehicles. You pedal or walk in past free campsites and Adirondack shelters and can have long stretches to yourself.

Best for: Wild rainbow trout, brown trout, and native brook trout — nymphing the pockets and fishing dries on the blue-winged olive and the late-spring green drake, all catch-and-release.

The longer of the two forks, rising on Cranberry Mountain and running through the Cranberry Glades Botanical Area before it meets the North Fork deep in the backcountry. It's small freestone brook trout water — remote, quiet, and reached only on foot or by bike. Fish it as a dry-dropper prospecting stream, working up through the pockets and small pools; the solitude above the botanical glades is the draw as much as the fishing.

Best for: Wild native brook trout on dry-dropper rigs and small attractor dries, prospecting the pocket water in tight, overgrown quarters.