Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: West Virginia
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

This study focuses on the recreational fisheries of Cheat Lake, a reservoir in northern West Virginia. The reservoir experiences seasonal lake level fluctuations owing to hydropower production, and the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources is interested in understanding the impacts of lake level fluctuations on recreational fisheries. The study includes the following nine research tasks: 1. Fish biomonitoring downstream of Cheat Lake 2. Benthic macroinvertebrate resource biomonitoring downstream of Cheat Lake 3. Water quality biomonitoring downstream of Cheat Lake 4. Fish biomonitoring of Cheat Lake and Cheat embayments 5. Walleye population monitoring and stock assessment 6. Monitoring of adult walleye movement 7.Physical and chemical water quality characteristics of Cheat Lake 8.Aquatic vegetation mapping of Cheat Lake 9.Create a bathymetric map of Cheat Lake