Slate Lick Lake / Slate Lick Run (Class B Stocked Trout)

Slate Lick Lake caught my attention while I was looking for new places to fish around my new home in Harrisonburg, Virginia.  The lake and associated creek are located within the George Washington National Forest northwest of the City of Harrisonburg.  The lake looked intriguing to me for several reasons: it is a stocked Brook Trout Lake, it’s remote, and it’s walk in only. My hope was that the lake could potentially contain some holdovers as well as fish from the recent stockings.

The area surrounding the lake is immensely beautiful.  As I pulled in Saturday morning, the trees were glistening like glass sculptures in the sun from the recent ice storm. I was surprised to find 8 or 9 trucks already in the parking area. Additionally, I was surprised to see the first gate locked. That meant that walk in was going to be roughly 2.5 miles instead of the half mile I had expected. 

Luckily the walk in wasn’t strenuous as I was able to follow a logging road.  The setting of the lake itself is beautiful. The fishing was a little lackluster. I got one giant bite from a 12 to 13” Brookie but a sluggish hookset on my part caused the fish to come unpinned at the bank. As more anglers arrived, I decided to fish the creek as I worked my way back to the truck. 

Slate Lick Lake

Slate Lick Run flows from the base of the dam nearly 2 miles back towards the parking area. The run is littered with tight runs, deep pools, and riffles.  The fishing pressure appeared to have been pretty high on this small stream over the last week, but I was still able to pull one Rainbow Trout out of a narrow run. (Still not 100% sure how he got there? It is supposed to be Brook Trout only.) The fish was staged below a pool tailout, in a narrow run. I let a small streamer drift into the run and the fish slammed it as it drifted behind a small boulder that created a current break. 

Where the Rainbow Trout was caught.

Unfortunately, that fish was the only fish I was able to land Saturday. I am grateful for the opportunity to fish in such a beautiful area and to fully utilize our Nation’s public land system. 

Beautiful little stocked Rainbow

Truthfully though, I doubt this area will be high on my list of places in the valley to return in the pursuit of stocked fish. I prefer the isolation of some other stocked streams closer to home.