Lake Frederick is a 117-acre impoundment owned by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. The department acquired the lake and a fifty foot buffer around the entire shoreline in 1981. Lake Frederick remains clear throughout the year and stratifies forming a thermocline during the summer months. The lake has a maximum depth of 50 feet and an average depth of 20 feet. Much of the shoreline and the upper ends of the two embayments contain standing submerged timber. Typically, the standing timber is located along the shoreline out to around twenty-five feet from the water's edge.
There is adequate bank fishing access along the breast of the dam and around the lower end of the lake. Boat anglers are welcome, but gasoline motors are prohibited. Only electric trolling motors are allowed.
Some of the fish species that anglers might encounter while fishing Lake Frederick include: largemouth bass, bluegill, redear sunfish, black crappie, channel catfish, and northern pike. VDGIF annually stocks channel catfish, and northern pike. The rest of the fish species in Lake Frederick reproduce naturally.
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF) will require an Access Permit for visitors to department-owned Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) and public fishing lakes effective January 1, 2012, who are age 17 and older, unless they possess a valid Virginia hunting, freshwater fishing, or trapping license, or a current Virginia boat registration. Learn more about the Access Permit »