I caught a village idiot
But the brook trout quest is ongoing
How’s this for a fairly naked pitch for you to find me on Notes, Substack’s answer to Twitter. The above is a Note I posted earlier this week after I went fishing with my pal Nic. Keep an eye on me there because that’s where I’ll likely first let you know when I finally catch a brook trout, Porte’s favorite fish.
Despite paltry fishing skills, I’m on a Porte-inspired quest. And I’m starting to feel like it’s only a matter time before a brookie ends up on my hook. As one PCAS member told me, “Every stream has a few village idiots.”
With little or no real aptitude for fly fishing, I’m counting on that. And maybe more than a little dumb luck.
It may not be a brook trout, but as you can see from the Note above, I managed to catch a village idiot last weekend. It lives in the upper lake at Cacapon Resort State Park, if you want to try your hand at easy pickings. I mean, if I actually caught that fish, you can too. It’s not very bright, after all.
Cacapon State Park is in Morgan County, outside Berkeley Springs where Porte maintained a second home and where his family ran a hotel that catered to the tourists who traveled there to take advantage of the town’s warm mineral springs. The waters have attracted people for centuries and still do. In fact, if I could afford it, I’d have a second home there, too. But I made a career out of being an underpaid public media journalist and I married a social worker.
You see my problem.
A controversy at Cacapon has been averted. Earlier this week, the state Division of Natural Resources backed down from a plan to develop a campground that would have attracted the recreational vehicle crowd.
Three private companies submitted proposals for an RV campground at Cacapon. The most ambitious proposal would have put 350 RV sites on park grounds, and it called for the construction of a water park and other amenities. But in the face of heavy public opposition, the DNR rejected all three this week.
The controversy stemmed from a state law the West Virginia Legislature passed last year. As the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the law “allows the DNR director to execute third-party contracts to finance, construct and operate new “recreational, lodging and ancillary” facilities at all state forests and every state park but Pocahontas County’s Watoga State Park.”
That law requires the DNR to hold a public hearing before any such proposal is accepted. One was scheduled last week for the RV plan at Cacapon, but it was canceled after a local resident complained the DNR had not properly notified the public.
Opposition also took the form of a petition. It drew more than 1,000 signatures. Also, the Morgan County Commission sent a letter to state officials citing traffic and environmental concerns and now the RV proposals are on the backburner.
That doesn’t mean development at the park is off the table. The DNR is now asking the public for ideas. If you have a mind, you can take the DNR’s survey here: WVstateparks.com/survey.
The controversy at Cacapon was in the back of my head when I suggested to Nic that we try fishing the lakes there. It had been more than a few years since I visited the park and I wanted to get the lay of the land in this corner of Porte’s world.
When we arrived late this past Sunday afternoon, puffy clouds were floating like cotton swabs against a blue sky. It would have been a fine spring day to try our luck, except blustery winds made a chilly day chillier and casting a fly line nearly impossible.
Nic didn’t really have to worry about the wind. He was using a spinning reel and caught a couple of baby fish in the lower lake at Cacapon. I remained true to Porte and stuck with my fly rod only to see my line flop into the water in a tangled mess. But after we decided to test the waters of the upper lake, I managed to hook a baby fish of my own despite winds that were pushing the water to shore in little waves that threatened to drown the dry fly I was using as bait.
Like I say, it wasn’t a brook trout, and the weather may not have been the greatest, but the few hours Nic and I spent at Cacapon turned out to be a confidence booster.
Usually, neither of us catch anything. As I’ve said before, our lack of fishing prowess is a running joke. We’ve spent years trying to catch fish together and have failed each time. This time, however, we both managed to catch fish, marking the first time that’s ever happened.
And now, I’m starting to feel like a brook trout is within the realm of possibility, even for a village idiot like me.
Better than catfish out of the Kanawha.