Cacapon on the fly

[Sean Steele]

Does anyone have experience with or recommendations for fishing the Cacapon River in West (By God) VA?

Thanks,
-Sean

[N Elgas]

I have a cabin on it and have fished it for the last 30 years.  Great river!  what kind of info you looking for. 

[Sean Steele]

Where’s your cabin and do you rent it out? Is there public access? Can you wade and/or paddle it? What species are most healthy? When do you recommend fishing it on the fly? Any guide recommendations?

Thanks,

-Sean

--
http://www.tpfr.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tidal-potomac-fly-...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to tidal-potoma...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tidal-potomac-fly-rodders/29d406c6-d520-4231-ade4-e681bba6043f%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[N Elgas]

My cabin is in the Crossings community in Bloommery and no its not for rent, not allowed there.   Check wvdnr website for float trips,  there are a bunch.  I have floated about 35 miles of it from cacpon bridge on rt 50 to Largent rt 9.

You can float and wade most of it.  Great smallmouth from May to November.  Gotta watch the river gauges cause it can shoot up quick.  anything above 600cfs is tough to wade anything above 1000 cfs would be real tough to float and fish.  Good access at the bridges,  but all 60+ miles are private shoreline.  I have camped on several properties just by looking up land owners and asking permission.  

Best public access is probably the rt 127 bridge or the Bloomery access in near the crossings if you want canoe/kayak access without a full commitment of a float trip,  you can wade and paddle upstream.  Most float trips are full day length and you don't want to get it a boat under 250 cfs if you have some place to be (lots of dragging).  It is one of the cleanest rivers in the state.  This is a good resource for the science of it https://www.cacaponinstitute.org/PDF/Publications/Portrait%20of%20a%20River.pdf   It is your normal low gradient smallmouth river.  Pool,  riffle,  pool riffle.  Nothing over a class 2 unless you hit it at flood stage. 

River is full of crayfish and helgramites.  You can get 100 fish days,  but probably average 14" bass.  Got quite a few over the years over 18"  and the occasional 20"  fish.  Pockets of largemouth can be found,  lots of bluegill and rock bass,  fall fish,  carp.  No cat fish,  don't know why but there just aren't.  I here Muskie like the Mouth of the cacapon where it hits the Potomac. 

Due to all the rain this is the first year as far as i can remember that i didn't do aa floattrip. 

On Wednesday, December 19, 2018 at 9:48:00 AM UTC-5, Sean Steele wrote:

Where’s your cabin and do you rent it out? Is there public access? Can you wade and/or paddle it? What species are most healthy? When do you recommend fishing it on the fly? Any guide recommendations?

Thanks,

-Sean

On Dec 19, 2018, at 9:45 AM, N Elgas <caca...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have a cabin on it and have fished it for the last 30 years.  Great river!  what kind of info you looking for. 

On Wednesday, December 19, 2018 at 9:33:15 AM UTC-5, Sean Steele wrote:

Does anyone have experience with or recommendations for fishing the Cacapon River in West (By God) VA?

Thanks,
-Sean

--
http://www.tpfr.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tidal-potomac-fly-rodders+unsub...@googlegroups.com.

[williamf...@gmail.com]

I have a cabin too . It’s about 5 miles from Great Cacapon. I’m happy to find others with Cacapon interest and experience. I fish for smallies too but never had anything like 100 fish day or over 14 inches. I wonder if there are more fish upstream than where I am. I’ve had luck with wooly buggers, crayfish patterns and minnow imitation streamers. Not so much on top water.

There are a couple low water bridges near me for access.

Bill

[N Elgas]

Bill, there are more riffles and rock gardens upstream than the spots i have seen near great cacapon...That might lead to the a few more smallies.  and my 100 fish days have not been on the fly...and actually not nearly as many as there use to be either.  I think the recent spring floods, this year especially will take a little to rebound from.  No way we had a good spawn this year. 

[Owen Williams]

I've been wondering about how historic levels of flooding last year affected the spawn and year class. Has anyone seen research on this yet or know a biologist who can give me an excuse for upcoming trips? ;-)

[westbrid...@gmail.com]

the cacapon institute and the WVDNR regional officer will have the most up to date,  but it will likely be similar to the effect the high water had on the upper Potomac and doah

[Stokes MacIntire]

I sometimes visit the Cacapon river in the winter. Are there any trout?

[Daniel Lazenby]

According to WVDNR the Cacapon contains:  smallmouth bass, rockbass, redbreast sunfish, channel catfish.

WVDNR does stock Capcapon Park lakes and other lakes with trout.  

Daniel

On Thu, Jan 10, 2019 at 2:54 AM Stokes MacIntire <sto...@macintire.net> wrote:

I sometimes visit the Cacapon river in the winter. Are there any trout?

--
http://www.tpfr.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tidal-potomac-fly-...@googlegroups.com.

To post to this group, send email to tidal-potoma...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tidal-potomac-fly-rodders/c179377c-bf8f-4e7c-835e-de3c0a53fcff%40googlegroups.com.

[Chuq Yang]

In past years, I've fished a few places on the Cacapon River. I too have had 100 fish days, granted they were probably 90% bluegill, but it was fun. The flows were conducive to wading at 39.510332,-78.35535. There's a nice little pull off there with a channel on the far side of the bank. Also, there are paw paw trees there. I caught a few smallies but nothing over 10". 

I caught a small catfish near the Route 9 bridge near Great Cacapon, but never caught a trout on the Cacapon River. The Rte. 9 bridge is quite a scenic place to fish with the RR bridge but a lot of locals swim there during the summer. As mentioned, check the gauges b/c the river can absolutely rage.

Chuq

On Thursday, January 10, 2019 at 7:51:17 AM UTC-5, Daniel Lazenby wrote:

According to WVDNR the Cacapon contains:  smallmouth bass, rockbass, redbreast sunfish, channel catfish.

WVDNR does stock Capcapon Park lakes and other lakes with trout.  

Daniel

On Thu, Jan 10, 2019 at 2:54 AM Stokes MacIntire <sto...@macintire.net> wrote:

I sometimes visit the Cacapon river in the winter. Are there any trout?

--
http://www.tpfr.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tidal-potomac-fly-rodders+unsub...@googlegroups.com.

[N Elgas]

The Cacapon is not stocked and should not have trout,  However, the North river is stocked and I did catch a 3lb rainbow one spring about 11 miles downs stream of the confluence (rt 127 bridge) and about 20 miles downstream of the stocking area (north Mountain). probably over 20 years ago.   The lost river (headwaters of cacapon before it goes underground in wardensville) is also stocked and has several tribs with bookies.    Edwards run pond (also a cacapon trib) in capon bridge is also stocked.   So it does happen but its not a trout river and nothing is making it through the summer.  If you are near the cacapon you should go to town creek DH in Green ridge state park on the MD side of the Potomac for trout.  Very nice winter trout stream with little pressure.     

[Stokes MacIntire]

Thanks, that's kinda what I thought. That's awesome you caught one in there though. And thanks for the recommendation!