Catching

I was wondering how long it was going to take for someone to catch that LOL. I doubt we can clean them out but there should be a few hundred dead ones by Sunday afternoon 8-)

Hey All, We have a few local Pro's participating in the Snakehead Round Up on 9-19-2010, after the 3 o'clock check in they will be available Q and A until 4pm. Steve Papp, dam good fisherman and local legend for his ability to consistently catch big fish. Captain Shane Procell, Professional Fishing Guide, and has had appeared on the Beat Charlie Moore show, and Go Fish TV. Captain Brett Isackson, Professional Fishing Guide, and has appeared on numerous Florida Sportsman fishing shows, and has had numerous tournament wins in the state of Florida. See ya'll Sunday, Jason and I should be at the boat ramp at the SW cornor of Univeristy and Soutgate Blvd around 6am.

We have about 20 guys confirmed, those of you fishing club tournaments anywhere in the South Florida including the lake might want to change your plans. These fish are just knocking on our door and once they get into the glades forget any more bass tournaments since you will not be able to keep Snakeheads off your bait. If you care just a little bit about our fishery you will show up and kill a few fish. I had the pleasure today to talk with one of our local guides and in two days he killed 100 Snakeheads fishing the canal along 75 west of Markham. These fish are getting real close to taking over South Florida and they just finished spawning. These fish can tolerate 50 degree water and once they get into Sawgrass they will take over and get into the lake in time. This is not about the money it is about saving our Bass fishery in South Florida.

Need a head count please. I have asked FWC if they have any media to pass out on invasive species at sign up and they have requested a head count so they know how much to give us. Please send a PM so I can relay to FWC. Thanks Dan

Congrates on the pig, nice healthy looking fish.

This is a big frog 4 3/4 inches

We will never be able to get rid of them but we can put a hurting on the spread of the population if we can keep killing off the breading stock. I am in contact about once a week with FWC, telling them where, catch sizes, and stomach contents. The have been super cool and I am hoping they will be at the Round Up collecting data.

Yes 8-10 pounds, there are lakes and canals surrounded by retirement communities in Tamarac that just held large numbers of huge bass about 15 years ago, these lakes were loaded with large wild shiners and shad, we would catch the shiners and just slam the big bass, it was amazing fishing that the kids today doing the catch and release of exotics will never see again if they insist of releasing these trashfish back into the system.

Yes, and YES, where went today after fishing the C-14 canal by boat used to be hog Heaven and the avg bass was 8-10 pounds. Now there are still bass there but only around 2-4 pounds on avg we just have too many exotic species living in our canal and not enough forage fish to support another top predator

Fished C-14 Launched at 8am 6 snakeheads and only one bass by 10:30, put the boat away and got lunch hit a canal close to the char hut and put another snake in the cooler and caught two more bass biggest around 3 pounds

Fished Sawgrass this morning both flats and East canal without a bite. I have never seen the water so high. We were able to go in the flats on the west canal and come out the east side with some spots on the flats over six feet deep.

Read most of the Plan tonight while pouring baits this evening, there is a lot waste of our money in this plan. Habitat Restoration, are you kidding me bass will adapt, I can not tell you how many fish I have caught off shopping carts, bicycles, sunken cars, cinder blocks, pavers, dumped concrete, etc., etc. Structure is structure and bass will take advantage of it no matter what it is. Vegetation Control is another big loser, my god learn how to fish thick cover. One of my lunch time holes was sprayed this week and the fish were nowhere to be found. It was sad looked the banks were sprayed with RoundUp and the canal only had grass on the edges, what a waste of money and destroyed habitat for grass shrimp, crawdads, and minnows (forage food for juvenile bass). There are more ideas that just do not make sense but I will submit them to FWC but these stood out and I need to get up at 4:30am to go fishing. Have a great weekend everybody Dan

Yes the Snakeheads are here but we can slow down the spread, if we can keep the main breeding population in the canal system they are in I would consider this a success for the recreational fishing community. If we do not try to control it now by keeping the population small and contained they will find their way into the glades and since that canal system in all connected they will eventually get to the Lake since they can tolerate colder temperatures and I do not think anyone wants that to happen. Yes I know Peacocks were introduced by FWC but they were only introduced to certain bodies of water in Dade County where they could not spread throughout South Florida. They spread with a little help from anglers catching in Dade and releasing them in our canal systems in Broward because they are fun to catch and they did not want to drive to Miami :,Which is the problem FWC is fearing with Snakeheads, they have explosive strikes and are easy to catch, very similar to a Peacock bass. For example I was fishing the other day and bumped into a guy I thought was fishing for catfish and he saw the snakehead in the bucket I was carrying with me and asked me what I was doing with it, told him that we are not supposed to release them because they are a invasive species. The guy responded and said that is not true FWC does not say to kill them, which is true but they do recommend that you do not release them. Long story short the guy was not happy with me keeping the fish because that was his recreational fish he likes to catch and release. I see a problem with that I hope you do as well. We as responsible anglers concerned about out fishery should not be promoting the catch and release of any invasive species, if you have a problem killing a fish I think you should find another sport because not every fish you catch will survive the stress of being caught anyway. I do not have any scientific data to back this up, but I do have 30 years of fishing South Florida waters. It has been about 10 years since I have caught a bass over ten pounds south of the lake, and rarely do you here about it anymore why do you think that is? We do not have enough forage fish in our waters to support it. Yes they will eat each other fry but peacocks and Snakes grow twice as fast therefore outcompeting Largemouth bass? When was the last time you saw schooling shad in the canals in Broward? I do not remember the year but it was shortly after I caught my first Peacock bass. Why do think California, Georgia, NC, and TX have such huge bass on a regular basis? The lakes are stocked with trout!!! If FWC wants to do something to get South Florida back in the game they should be releasing forage fish back into system in mass quantities and I guarantee we will start seeing massive bass pulled out of South Florida once again making South Florida the #1 place in the country to catch a bass over ten pounds again.

Bro I have read all the rules three or four times, I have been particularly careful with this site when posting

I printed out and will go over it over the weekend, I have a big concern since one of the guys in charge of the survey results is promoting what a great fishery we have in South Florida because of the diveristy of fish we have in South Florida Sorry but if we want a good largemouth bass fishery down here again we can not promote the introduced species as a game fish, such as Snakeheads, and Peacock bass. We need to figure out how to get rid of them!! Sorry I am not a big fan of introduced species and can not wait for a little ice age to kill them all !! 50 degree water temp kills them all and bass fishing should be like the old days again 8-)

I did ask permission to post this prior to posting I am not promoting anything but awareness of a situation about to go real bad. Our current population of snakeheads are confined to a group of urban canals right now and we are trying to keep it that way.

Well tonight was one of my daughters open house at school, over at 7:30pm. Cutting through the neighborhood she asked if we could stop at the lake and take few cast before dark I am so glad she asked this beast sucked down my frog 8-) 7 pounds on the bogo

With the increasing snakehead population in south Florida thought it would be a good idea to help out our native species by taking a few out of the system before their next breeding cycle. There will be Shakehead Round Up on September 19, 2010. Sign up at the boat ramp located on the North West corner of Southgate Blvd and University Drive at 7am. Two divisions Shoreline and Boat, entrance fee is $20 and total for each division will be split 50/50 one for big fish and one for most killed. Be back at the ramp at 3pm to see how you did. We will be keeping track of how many each angler has caught, and where then submitting the information to FWC non-native species division for their records so please if you sign up bring your catch by so we can document it. When talking to FWC about this tournament they stressed "it is illegal to posses or transport live snakeheads" so be sure to kill any you catch. If you get pulled over or checked by FWC while fishing the tournament you could get fined. Do not bring a live snakehead back to the ramp at 3pm unless it is dead. Rules are simple for this one guys, catch and kill every snakehead you can and possibly win a few bucks in the process. If there are any questions send me an PM.

No these were all caught on Frogs

Jason and I decided to do some bank hopping this morning with the weather being questionable it did not make sense to drag the boat out. We fished for about two hours and Jason caught four snakeheads 3-5 pounds and I caught two nice bass one 4, and 4.5 pounder. Found two baby turtles in one of the snakeheads belly. The bass in these pictures were released but the snakeheads were killed.

I have not caught any bass where I have caught the snakeheads or seen any small fish running the banks, but in the same canal system if I catch bass I do not get snakeheads. It has been a couple days since I pulled these two snakes out of the body of water I have been fishing at lunch and today the banks were loaded up with smaller fish and bluegills everywhere, very good to see that 8-) and no snakes today not hit a hit from one 8-)

I am using a big frog and heavy braid, here is one I caught yesterday behind a Wendy's on my lunch break this one was six pounds. Also caught this 3-4 pound bass after work in the same area.

I think you have the northern Snakehead, the Bullseye Snake head dies in waters colder than 50 degrees so it might take a little ice age to kill them off down here.

There was a break in the weather around lunchtime today, had my rod in the car so I went to a spot where I used to catch some nice fish when I was a kid about 15 minutes from the office, did not catch any bass, or even see any baitfish but saw some movement along the shoreline and I mean right up on the bank, about five cast later I caught a 4.5 pound Bullseye Snakehead put it on ice and headed back to the office. Called it in to FWC, talked to Kelly in the Boca office, super cool guy to talk to, told me everywhere they have been finding them,. they seem to be confined from Hillsboro Blvd south to Oakland Park Blvd west to Markham Park. He was happy I did not release it, then suggested how to cook it up. Cut it up when I got home, battered it with Tempura batter with a bit of Thai Curry Rub from Pampered Chef and it was very good. So any guys down here in South Florida should consider it open season on these fish since they are getting real close to getting into the glades and from what I saw from this little canal it looks like they it took over. If you do not want to eat it give them to someone who will, we really need to try and stop these fish from spreading. If you catch any north, south, or west of these locations please call it in to FWC so they can keep track of where they are spreading to.

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