Snakehead Whisperer

Mind posting it for the rest of us? Now I want to see it.

x3 on the fallfish. They're pretty aggressive too.

Thanks. There's also a recent incident where the US Park Police have been citing people who wade fish here in the DC area. Apparently there is a law on their books prohibiting entering the water from US Park Service land, and pretty much all of the shoreline on the VA side belongs to them.

I'm going to have to revisit this and see if there are any new developments. I think there are other streams now that face similar legal uncertainty in VA.

This has been an ongoing issue on some trout streams in Virginia. IIRC the landowners claim ownership of the streambed due to it being awarded to them by, of all people, the queen of England back in the 1700's. Pretty sure that not many of them are actual descendants of the original property owners, so whether this streambed ownership is valid and/or transferable is one of the main issues in the case. Not sure if this case is still in the courts or not, but fly fishers have been prosecuted for this despite not setting foot on the land in dispute.

Good to know. I have a '87 Merc 25hp, and haven't noticed any difference with high octane gas, so I always run 87. Do you know the weight of your engine? Mine is right around 85lbs. I have no idea what ignition system the newer 4 strokes have, or the compression ratio on them; so hard to say why it is that you have such a noticeable performance/economy boost with the higher octane. Bottom line is that higher octane fuel is actually more stable/less volatile than lower octane, so getting better performance just from the high octane fuel alone is not likely. If it's a higher compression engine, or has a a lot of advance in timing then it was probably not designed to run on the lower octane fuel.

Well that's news to me. Most of the 4 strokes I've seen have a 92+ sticker on them.

Your post reminds me of something. OP... you're most likely going to have to run 92 octane if you go with a 4 stroke, where as most of the newer 2 strokes will run fine on 87.

A 2 stroke doesn't have a valvetrain; so in addition to producing more HP per pound they are much lighter due to the lack of a camshaft, valves, lifters, etc. Iif you're buying a new ob, your 2 stroke choices will be limited.

DNS is a public service provided by many different organizations (most people usually use the server provided to them by their ISP, but this isn't the only way.) Look up 'public dns servers' and use ones that are close to where you're located. PM me if you can't get online and need somebody to get the IP #'s for you.

Not to mention those giant cats you catch on them out there

It's hard to tell from the condition of the fish in the picture, but it could also be a redfin pickerel. Neither species of pickerel usually grow much bigger than 12-16" or so. I believe they are both MA natives. No idea what color they were when they were still alive, so hard to tell how they turned blueish. Sometimes pickerel will have a blueish hue to them. Northern Snakeheads are a deep brown color typically and have a dorsal fin that runs about 2/3 of it's body length, and an anal fin that runs more than half of it's length. Pickerel inhabit shallow waters for much of their life, so my guess would be that they swam to the puddles in high water and were trapped when the water receded. Also, snakeheads don't really walk on land like the media has reported. They can cross marshy wetlands when they are fry/fingerling sized as long as they stay wet, but once they are juvenile sized they must swim where they want to go. They can breathe air, however; but so can the bowfin which is a native species in North America, as well as numerous other species of freshwater fish. Welcome to the site, btw.

No rare fish, but fish caught under rare circumstances. Caught a channel cat and a longnose gar both on a popper this year, which is pretty rare for either species. The gar will hit them all day long, but hooking one is nearly impossible. My dream is to catch a bowfin on the tidal Potomac (very rare, but there are a few in there.) Also caught a red drum on the river here that was just a hair below keeper size, which is pretty uncommon this far up. It was during a really dry spell last summer, and the salinity in tidal portion of the river was getting up there. Atlantic needlefish were also swimming around the area.

Can't see any pics. edit: Found these in your gallery. Looks like a grass pickerel turned blue. It's definitely not a snakehead.

Yes, walleye will hit topwater. But like iabass8 said, it's not a very productive way to target them. I've only heard of a few people catching them on topwater, and none of them were actually targeting walleye. Walleye do feed above their heads quite a bit however, and usually when they hit a jerkbait/crank they are coming up to strike it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7CQXVs9QYM

Quick update: My outboard survived this ordeal and seems to be running as well as it did before the swim. Lost the cowl in the accident, and found one nearby in decent shape for $30 too. Thanks again everyone for the support and well wishes. -Andrew

Not sure if that's the same vid, but it illustrates the point pretty well. We'll probably never know whether it's because of the color, your confidence in the color, or something else entirely; but it really doesn't matter if it works for you. I have one old buzzbait with a white blade that slays em, and another that is very similar with a silver blade that works but not as well. It could be the color or it might be some other subtlety of the action that makes it work better than the other. Who knows besides the fish?

There used to be a video online showing what a buzzbait looks like from under water. I've looked for this video several times to no avail. Basically if it's buzzing, the fish can't see the blade. All you can really see is the water churning around it.

Nice, I'll get there one day.

It stands for 'heat escape lessening position.' It basically is meant to limit the exposure of body parts that lose heat fastest while in the water to slow the onset of hypothermia. A google search for help position will net you pictures of what it looks like. The 'survival position' while less effective, is another position that can be used if you haven't enough buoyancy to remain in the help position safely.

Nice action in the video. Looks like it would be a good snakehead lure.

Good looking fish.

Been playing since I was 11 or 12. I also play the drums, bass, and banjo (and pretty much anything else I can get my hands on.) My biggest influences have probably been Dave Murray, Tony Iommi, and Randy Rhoads.

Thanks. Glad to have the opportunity to share it. I grew up in SF and Pacifica... cold is an understatement I also agree that Hanover_Yakker's post has some great advice. Really got me thinking about how to survive in the unfortunate event of being stranded in the cold.

Thanks. That's a good policy to have. I've been checking out the Mustang HIT for next summer ($250, ouch.)