Sleepy Creek Lake is a impoundment of the

Meadow Branch Meadow Branch is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 15, 2011 tributary stream of Sleepy Creek in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle region. It passes through the Slee ...

Sleepy Creek Sleepy Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 tributary of the Potomac River in the United States, belonging to the Chesapeake Bay's watershed. The s ...

in Berkeley County in

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

Eastern Panhandle The Eastern Panhandle is the eastern of the two panhandles in the U.S. state of West Virginia; the other is the Northern Panhandle. It is a small stretch of territory in the northeast of the state, bordering Maryland and Virginia. Some sources a ...

. The

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

is located entirely within the

Sleepy Creek Wildlife Management Area Sleepy Creek Wildlife Management Area is located in Morgan County, West Virginia, Morgan and Berkeley County, West Virginia, Berkeley Counties in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. It encompasses , mostly covered with mixed oak and pine forest, a ...

History

Sleepy Creek Lake was constructed by the

West Virginia Division of Natural Resources The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR) is an agency of the government of the U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state ...

(WVDNR) and was completed in 1962. The lake was opened for fishing in 1964. WVDNR began stocking the reservoir with

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus '' Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are known simply as a ...

in 1989.

Description

Sleepy Creek Lake is a

located at an elevation of within the

, which lies within both Morgan and

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

counties. The lake is nestled between two mountain ridges:

Sleepy Creek Mountain Sleepy Creek Mountain is a mountain ridge in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians on the border between Morgan and Berkeley counties in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The long-distance Tuscarora Trail traverses the southern ridge and northe ...

() and

Third Hill Mountain Third Hill Mountain is both the highest and most topographically prominent mountain in Berkeley County within the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. Third Hill Mountain reaches its highest elevation of above sea-level southeast of the "Locks-of ...

(). The lake has a maximum depth of and an average depth of . Sleepy Creek Lake provides fishing for

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, but ...

bluegill The bluegill (''Lepomis macrochirus''), sometimes referred to as "bream", "brim", "sunny", or "copper nose" as is common in Texas, is a species of North American freshwater fish, native to and commonly found in streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and ...

crappie Crappies () are two species of North American freshwater fish of the genus ''Pomoxis'' in the family Centrarchidae (sunfishes). Both species of crappies are popular game fish among recreational anglers. Etymology The genus name ''Pomoxis'' ...

, northern pike, and

channel catfish The channel catfish (''Ictalurus punctatus'') is North America's most numerous catfish species. It is the official fish of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Tennessee, and is informally referred to as a "channel cat". In the United States, the ...

References

Rivers of Berkeley County, West Virginia Reservoirs in West Virginia Potomac River watershed 1962 establishments in West Virginia 1962 in the environment {{BerkeleyCountyWV-geo-stub