Fish in the Cacapon River (Bass)
Fish in the Cacapon River
(Written by Don Robinson)
Many different species of fish live in the Cacapon River. When I was still in high school, I used to do a lot of fishing in Thorn Creek and the South Branch near Franklin and I thought I had many of the Cacapon’s fish identified. I even read a book and I thought it said there were thirteen species living in the ‘healing waters’. While chatting on the phone with Gerald Lewis, the Fisheries Biologist for Hampshire County, I counted twenty-seven species of fish, not counting any hybrids. The article I started writing about all of the Cacapon’s fish almost got stuffed into the recycle bin because it would be too long, but I think perhaps I can divide it up into different installments.
Bass
Probably the families of fish that are most popular with anglers are bass and trout. Bass are really in the same family, Centrarchidae, as sunfish. Bass in general are more like a ‘sprinter’ while trout are more like a marathon runner. Trout are likely absent from the Cacapon, because the warm water of summertime doesn’t contain enough dissolved oxygen for them to survive. In warm water, a trout will suffocate from the lack of oxygen. In the wintertime, if you ever notice a greenish cast to the river, it gets that coloring from the fact that colder water contains more dissolved oxygen.
So this issue will contain information about bass. Three bass species live in the Cacapon, but only one is native to the river, the other two are ‘introduced’, but most people now consider them native.
Most fishermen consider the bass to be intelligent. If you watch when a bass strikes its prey, you will note that it opens its large mouth, creating a hydraulic draft into the mouth and out through the gills, thus pulling the prey into its jaws. I recall hearing an old fisherman's story that they will strike a crayfish once and only return to swallow it if the shell was soft from being recently shed. I used to examine the contents of the stomach, and the crayfish found there were quite hard-shelled.
I don’t know if bass are naturally curious, but I remember one summer seeing a smallmouth bass when I was accoutered in snorkel and mask. I was able to maintain eye contact for about 20 minutes or so, as he just kept circling me (and I him) and we looked at each other. He was a big one, about 18 inches or so.
I have seen a few ‘dumb basses’ or at least evidence of them along the Cacapon. They are the ones that throw beer cans, bait buckets, and glass objects in the river and along the shores! Real fishermen, of course, respect the river and the other people that use it.
I was informed recently by a biology teacher that you can tell the gender of a fish with a piece of straw and a very personal act that would make me very uncomfortable. The straw goes farther into a female than a male, and I will leave the actual test description to your imagination. I know I wouldn’t try it on a live fish, especially if I respect its dignity. I wasn’t real clear on how you compare the depth of penetration. Perhaps someone is now laughing while thinking I will be checking fish in this personal way all summer, but it isn’t going to happen.
The photographs on this page came from the website of the Native Fish Conservancy at http://www.nativefish.org.
Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu)
You might hear this fish called bronze-back, brownie, or brown bass. It is one of the most popular game fish on the planet, as it is a strong swimmer and puts up a hard battle when hooked. In fact, they have amazing speed for short bursts, making them good hunters of other fish.
When you see these in the water, the adults have black tails while the rest of the fish looks brownish or bronze. Sometimes they hunt in solitary, but will often hunt in schools. I observed three of them once following a carp around waiting to see what the carp stirred up as it dug at the bottom. The young have a tail and pectoral fins that are triply striped in yellow, black and white, then later just black and white and finally only the dark tail remains of their youthful coloration. If you look at one of these from the side underwater, (or of course, if you catch one) there are dark mottled vertical bars down from the back toward the belly. Smallmouth bass have red eyes. As with all Cacapon bass, the front of the two dorsal fins has spines, so handle with care. The name ‘smallmouth’ comes from the fact that its mouth, though large, does not protrude behind the vertical position of the eye.
They spawn in the spring when water temperature reaches 600 F. The nest can often be spotted as it is a pile of small stones in light to moderate current, usually with a place nearby for the fish to run to and hide if startled. For about a week, the male guards the nest and hatchlings, which feed on minute crustaceans in the water, and later eat larger ones and other fish as well. Sunfish are predators of the small fry, and where a large sunfish population exists, often the bass spawning is less successful. According to my late neighbor Tom Stephens of Berkeley Springs, the state of West Virginia once forbade catching bass during the mating season to improve the success of reproduction.
The fish generally lives 10-12 years if undisturbed, and is sexually mature in three.
Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides)
This very popular sport fish is sometimes called Willow bass or Black bass in our area. Other common names include Bigmouth bass, Bucketmouth bass, Green bass, Hog, Lineside, Lake bass, Openmouth bass, Oswego bass, and Welshman.
The Largemouth can be distinguished at sight in the water from the Smallmouth, as there is a mottled black horizontal line running from its gills to the tail. When you take the Largemouth out of water, you can see it has a golden colored eye, and you can notice that it has two separate dorsal fins instead of one merged fin. Also, it gets its name because the mouth protrudes beyond the line of the eye. It has a brown or greenish back, and a dark tail fin.
Like the Smallmouth, the Largemouth is sexually mature when age three and spawns when the water temperature reaches 630-680 F. Its nest is a concave area fanned out by the male with his tail on a rocky or gravelly bottom, around two feet in diameter. He lures or bullies a female to it and she lays eggs which he then fertilizes as he swims over the nest. The male guards it from all intruders until the eggs hatch. After hatching, the fish stay together in a school, feeding on tiny crustaceans, protected by the male for about a month. Then the inch long small ones go their separate ways. They generally live about 13 years.
The adults like the hide among aquatic plants, where they can easily prey on other fish. They also like crayfish and other crustaceans as well as insects and insect larva. They feed by sight, but can sense minnows by their lateral line, a sense organ most fish have that ‘feel’ vibrations in the water. Neither the Smallmouth nor Largemouth is native to the Cacapon River. Both can survive water temperatures into the 90s and thrive when the water is in the 80s.
Rock Bass (Ambloplites rupestri)
Common names for this bass also include Goggle-eye bass, Red-eye bass, and Speckled bass.
This fish is shaped more like a sunny than a Smallmouth or Largemouth bass. It is speckled black, brown, and silvery and has a large red eye and a silvery belly.
To find this fish, note that it likes clear water and rocky areas with a fair amount of current. I see them often from my canoe in areas where the water is swift. Its dark coloring and unmistakable roundness make it easy to recognize in the water. It feeds on crustaceans, other fish, insects and insect larva. Its large red eyes are structured in such a way that it can easily see crayfish, a preferred food, on the bottom as it swims by.
Spawning occurs in water that is in the high 60s or low 70s. The male sweeps out a circular nest in coarse sand or gravel. When a female is enticed to the nest, she deposits a portion of her 10000 eggs which stick to the gravel. The male fertilizes them and guards the nest. A spring flood might wash away the hatchlings to a likely death, but if they survive predation and flooding, they may be up to an inch and a half long by the end of the first summer. Like the other bass of the Cacapon, this fish is sexually mature at three years. A large one would only be about 10 inches long, but would put up a good fight when hooked. It will hit almost any kind of lure.
The Rock Bass and other members of the sunfish family serve as a host to immature freshwater mussels, and is the only bass native to the Cacapon River.