Leesville Lake is part of the Smith Mountian hydro-electric pump storage project on the Roanoke River built by AEP in the early 1960's. It begins at the base of Smith Mountian Dam and snakes 17 miles to Leesvile Dam which is just upstream from Leesville Virginia and the mouth of Goose Creek. It is the "lower" lake of the pump storage system and lake levels fluctuate between 600 ft to 613 ft above mean sea level. The lake covers 3,270 acres containing 94,900 acre-feet of water at full pond.

Hydro electric generation provides power mostly during hours of peak demand. Water passes thru Smith Mountian Dam's generators into Leesville Lake during periods of peak demand and the generators are used as pumps to return the water during a period of low demand using excess power in the AEP system. Steam generation plants must continue to stay in operation during low demand. The excess power can be "stored" as potential energy in the water of Smith Mountian Lake. One foot of water in Leesville Lake will raise Smith Mountian aproxamently two inches. The highest peek demand periods are hot summer days and cold winter mornings. Leesville Lake has a maximum refill rate of 1.33 feet per hour and a maximum drawdown rate of 0.46 feet per hour.

Fishing