Barnesville Reservoir, Ohio: Fishing Spots and Seasons

• Overview

  You will find Barnesville Reservoir in Belmont County, Ohio. The water sits 1,184 feet up. At 13 acres it is the sort of place you fish for an evening rather than a day. By elevation it is in the upper part of our Ohio listings. Nearest town is Barnesville, 1.4 miles off. Pittsburgh sits 69 miles out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. You are close to a county edge here; who manages the access can change within a short drive.

• Where to Fish on Barnesville Reservoir

  No depth figure appears in our records, so the bank has to tell you. Held water runs deepest at the wall and shallows back to the inflow. Inflow corners move water, and moving water gathers fish. Public occurrence data for Belmont County names johnny darter, fantail darter, rainbow darter and stonecat. Those are county-wide records, so not every one of them will be in this water. Barnesville Reservoir responds to conditions more than to tactics.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The year swings from about 27°F in January to roughly 72°F in July. Spring and autumn are the strongest, but nothing is truly closed. It should never be assumed safe, whatever the month says. Autumn steadies things again once the heat lets go. Barnesville Reservoir fishes to that pattern most years.

• Tackle & Baits

  No access rule appears in what we hold. There is somewhere to leave the car, half a mile off. Bluegill and other panfish take small jigs or worms under a float near any cover. Parking space is the usual limit rather than the bank itself. Close seasons apply to some species and not others. Livezey Lake, 0.9 miles away, makes the obvious fallback. Ask locally about Barnesville Reservoir if anything is unclear.