Capps Creek Tr 2/17

[Troutnut69]

Friday my best buddy and I took off from KC and headed down to spend the day on Capps. We got there about 8:30 and parked at the MDC lot beside the bridge by the Jolly Mill , I was going to fish the park as well but after reading the rules I found out they wouldn't allow Joe to join me so I decided to pass.

Right off the bat I caught three small bows just below the bridge on a beadhead nymph pattern , unfortunately those were the only fish of the day. I fished the upper and lower area throwing wooly buggers and using a two nymph rig at other times. I probably spent most of my time downstream of the lower access at the bridge , some really good looking water down there and I was dissapointed in my end result. Not sure what I was doing wrong but there just had to be some fish in those holes , although I have to admit I didn't see any.

We still had a great day on the water , but I have to wonder after my second trip to this river in as many years why I can't seem to have any regular success? I know I'm not a great fisherman but I can generally pull the blind squirrel trick out of my hat at some point. I'm not giving up though , that would be too easy!

Full TR and pics on my blog......Jeff

(It will be the second post as I've put something else up since Friday)

http://highplainsflyfisher.blogspot.com/

[Buzz]

Great pictures of the creek on your blog. Capps can be a little tight with it's offerings at times. Your discription of White Ribbon Streams on your blog desribes Capps to a "T", unfortunately. I don't spend as much time there as I used to. I have located a few spots that aren't very accessable to the bucketeers that usually hold fish, but with the way it is stocked anymore they can still be tough. Ollie did catch a nice brown a while back.

[Addicted to Creeks]

Trout nut i jus wanted to let you know i really enjoy your blog, it is one of the better fishing blogs i have found for our area

[Troutnut69]

Honestly I went back down with limited expectations , knowing that it could be tough fishing. The part that amazes me is just how much quality looking water I covered and the total absence of fish to be found. I know that not all of those stocked fish go home in buckets , although a good percentage probably do. If it all looked like marginal water I could understand a little better , but Capps has some very nice looking water to hold fish over. I just kept fishing holes and pools that I knew had to have some fish in them , but couldn't even get so much as a strike. Kind of an off the wall question here , but I'm new to this creek in particular , last year when I made my first trip down I witnessed a guy in the park on a 4-wheeler tossing small buckets of fish food into the stream. Is this a common practice by the owners or managers? Not really any of my business but just wondered if that wouldn't keep a good portion of the stocked fish up around that section and make them more susceptible to going home on a stringer. It's really kind of sad if there aren't more fish in the creek than that , beautiful water...tons of food ( I saw more hatches and bugs on this river than many better fisheries in the state for sure) and just a few straggler fish every now and then that obviously never developed a taste for rainbow powerbait. Typical fisherman right....blaming his lack of success on the stream and not taking into account his own ineptitude!

Addicted To Creeks - Thanks for the compliment , I do appreciate it.

[ollie]

As for myself, I have never witness anyone throwing buckets of food into the water, but it doesn't surprise me either. It took me a loooooong time before I caught anything worth anything on Capps. Just have to put your time in I guess. Sometimes if you just catch one or two that is a success on Capps. I fished it last week on Sunday and only caught one in 3 1/2 hours. I gave up and decided it would have been better bass fishing in the creek instead!

[Troutnut69]

Ollie - it's a beautiful little stream and it won't be my last time down regardless of my somewhat unsuccessful attempts. The hardest part for me to understand is why the state dumps so many fish into a trout park setting or a mudhole lake in the city and yet can't keep a wonderful little place like Capps stocked with a decent amount of fish? I'm assuming it all has to do with the amount of use it sees (meaning dollars in their pocket!)

[Tommy Neil]

I fished Capps yesterday for two hours and not one bite. Its been that way for three weeks, like all the fish have been removed. I have been fishing Capps for a year and always had a few bites until three weeks ago. This was my sixth trip in three weeks with no bite.

[FishmastaZERO]

Theres definatly some nice hold over browns down there but there tough to catch .the last time I was down there during the summer I hooked what looked to be at least a 20 in brown got a little to excited for my 6x tippet and broke it off at the net ,gotta love how thT works ..IMO with alittle more management it could really turn into a halfway decent little brown trout fishery..ive had a couple days down there where I caught so many 15 in stocker browns it got boreing all in one hole guess I must have found where they stock um

[ollie]

If you were catching browns at 15" they weren't stockers!! lol The MDC only puts them in at 8-9" and only once a year. Buzz and I are working on trying to make this a better brown fishery, but it is hard to change regs on any stream in MO. I was down yesterday and I could tell they haven't stocked in awhile. I came up empty to Tommy. Only one goggle-eye and I called it quits.

[Tommy Neil]

I was at Capps yesterday and saw two trout while walking from the dam to the wooden bridge and standing on the bridge 30 minutes. I was told they had stocked on the 4th of March. The same person told me he had seen a man with a casting net below the dam talking two huge browns out. I would have turned him in.