Cacapon underwater videos

I always wondered why I haven't seen a darter when snorkling, now I notice that those tessies can be quite hard to see in similar colored substrate.

They are easy to overlook unless they move. I think once you have seem a few, you get a better practiced eye and notice them where you would have overlooked them before.

Here's my last video to post pending getting some higher quality videos. This is one of the first ones I shot (2012) and I learned that the GoPro stock housing (curved lens cover) causes underwater images to be slightly out of focus. I replaced this with a flat lens cover for the 2013 videos.

I post it because what appears to be a Spotted bass swims in for a brief cameo. I've never caught nor seen one in the Cacapon before, though there are largemouth in the slower stretches, especially above dams.

Edited by tomterp, 04 January 2014 - 11:30 AM.

Here's a grainy still of the suspected Spotted bass:

Edited by tomterp, 04 January 2014 - 11:44 AM.

No hazing ritual, but be careful -- pick warmer days (like not the next few days!), and keep an eye on water levels. Seining sucks when you pull up ten pounds of ice in your net with each haul, and the net freezes solid when it comes out of the water. I assume you already know about the USGS gauging station on the lower part of the river (http://waterdata.usg...ite_no=01611500); keep an eye on river levels and pick low water. While many fish do hide in leafpack in slower reaches, some things (darters, sculpins, hogsuckers, etc.) remain more active... and you might find some things that surprise you. I've snorkeled some other rivers on the north side of the mainstem in a drysuit during the winter. I stumbled on a few wintering holes where all of the smallmouth from a long reach of river had migrated downriver and were stacked up in deep, slow water. BIG smallmouth. Of course I went back with a canoe and a brown hair jig with a pork rind trailer...

Dave, yes I'm familiar with the Cacapon gauges. I've never tried snorkeling in a dry suit, but might try to use my wetsuit to expand the seasons. Love your finding smallmouth stacked up for the winter, this sounds spot on. Not to give away all my spots but in the Potomac, starting mid-November bit smallies stack up within spittin' distance of a certain major highway bridge crossing. So much so you have to beware of falling bottles, weapons used in homicides, etc.

Distinguishing young Largemouth vs Spotted is iffy enough when they're in hand. Both species show a lot of pattern variation. I really dont think you can see enough detail in the video or the still shot to make a good guess. What makes you think it's a Spotted?

Distinguishing young Largemouth vs Spotted is iffy enough when they're in hand. Both species show a lot of pattern variation. I really dont think you can see enough detail in the video or the still shot to make a good guess. What makes you think it's a Spotted?

Having seen thousands of largemouth and smallmouth, this fish immediately struck me as anomalous. Yes, it strongly resembles a largemouth, and perhaps (even probably) it is. I'm not sure I've ever knowingly seen a spotted bass, but hear they are spreading in eastern slope appalachian streams (James, Appomattox). It was in a place where I would NOT expect to see a largemouth, a swift flowing area far from slow pools. Here, I am presuming spotted would have more taste for swift flowing areas, but that may be not valid too. Thoughts on preferred habitat?