Smith River

A cold Virginia tailwater with its own wild-brown lineage.

The Smith River runs below USACE's Philpott Dam near Bassett, Virginia — a cold-water tailwater that supports a wild brown trout fishery in a part of the state that would otherwise be too warm for trout.

The 'Smith River strain' brown trout — a self-sustaining wild population descended from decades-old stockings — is the defining feature of the fishery. The river is small, technical, and tightly tied to the Philpott Dam generation schedule.