Snakehead Whisperer

This stuff really gets to me. Sandy Point is a risky place to break the law too; almost hard to believe somebody would be stupid enough to poach with all the law enforcement around there. I see this all the time on the Potomac during the shad run. People keeping lots of rockfish no matter what size, and cast netting shad. Glad they got the guy.

Owner. Hard to go wrong with Gamy or Trokars, but I usually spend my money on Owner hooks.

If it had been a 4lb. smallie it probably could've eaten the 2lber no problem.

Had to dig through my photos but I finally found one. This frog just jumped on top of my lure but didn't try to eat it. This frog was released mostly unharmed. Caught on a sexy shad Spro popper frog. I've since learned to differentiate a frog from a fish strike, so I don't really catch them anymore. But they strike pretty frequently. I've also caught a lot of birds and northern watersnakes on topwater The snakes are fun, the birds are just mean.

Good recommendation. Jeff Little's YouTube page is a great too. I want to check out his river smallie DVD's.

Foul hooked and landed a 38lb. carp last winter while crappie fishing on 2lb. test. I didn't time it, but my friend said that I fought the fish for approximately 50 minutes. There was no way that I could have possibly got the fish in any faster than I did. Caught a koi that same night (also foul hooked.) That fish was probably less than 2lbs. but stripped my reel quickly and gave me a good fight that was probably at least 5 minutes if I had to guess. Pound for pound it fought a lot harder than the carp. Caught the carp on copoly line; it was done after that fish, had to completely re-spool.

x2. A 5" grub or a 3" senko also rig well on sliders.

Zoom plastics are the real deal.

Try fishing it over riffles and through eddies the last few hours of the day when you're fishing the river. I've caught more smallies in heavy current on a buzzbait than any other topwater lure. Don't be afraid to throw that thing in fast moving water.

No prob. There used to be a place to launch at the end of Delaware Dr., right near where it intersects with Aquia Dr. Can't vouch for whether it's currently a good launch point or not. Might be houses there now. Please report back on what you find if you go there.

National Geographic did a write up about that a while ago. US Fish & Wildlife did extensive studies on brown bullheads in the Anacostia and found that there was a nearly 80% probability that adult female fish would develop liver tumors by the time they reach 11 inches. That is the highest rate in the country. The rates of tumors are declining but there are a number of factors that come into play, so it's still a mystery for the most part as to why that is. The other alarming thing is that tumor rates were nearly identical in fish harvested from Piscataway Creek and the Roosevelt Island area of the Potomac when these studies were conducted. Here's a link to a write up on the report. http://www.fws.gov/chesapeakebay/pdf/BrownBullheadTumorsFactSheet%2004162013.pdf Hard to argue with Aquia Creek; apparently it's a world class snakehead fishery now Also found the link to the National Geographic article.

Haven't fished the tidal river in weeks, so none here. What kind of habitat are you fishing? The most productive area there is by far the spatterdock field West of the bridge, not sure if you can access it by shore though. Little Hunting Creek is also a great spot, but shore access there is almost non-existant there. If you're shore bound and looking to catch a snakehead I would try hitting the smaller feeder creeks in tidal water, or some ponds that are on the flood plain of tidal water. In Southern MD there are many public ponds that have snakeheads, but I don't know of any in VA. If you can make it out there, the pond at Bumpy Oak Road and the Indian Head Rail Trail near Pomonkey, MD is full of them. Fishing there is hit or miss. Some days you can catch many, other days you're lucky if you nab 1. The pond also has a decent population of largemouth and chain pickerel. The spot is no secret; if you google bumpy oak pond snakehead you'll get lots of results. I've also heard of lots of catches at 4 Mile Run in Alexandria. I'm pretty sure most are caught off the rip-rap near the water treatment plant, and also across from there in the small creek next to the park. Shoreline access here is pretty good, and I believe it's wadeable (please make sure it's legal if you decide to wade.) Bladensburg waterfront park and the area near RFK stadium/Kingman Island in DC are also both good snakehead spots (but I wouldn't eat anything out of the Anacostia river if it were me.) It's also a good idea to think outside of the box when snakehead fishing. Watch some of the Japanese videos on youtube and you'll see these guys catching them out of drainage ditches and retention pools. Anything on the flood plain of the river is fair game. Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in DC is overrun with them, but unfortunately fishing the ponds there is not legal.

Most fun lure to target bluegill/panfish with is the Rebel Bumble Bee or a float and fly, IMHO. I'm with wademaster1 on tiny tubes, and everyone who suggested jig and grub too. The little 2" Gulp swimming minnow grubs are killer too when rigged on a tiny jighead. What won't a bluegill strike? I've caught them on poppers, large cranks, and large spoons. They'll attack pretty much anything that moves.

Is that a typo, or is that spelling intentional? I laughed, regardless

Can't hurt to give it a try. Pour some and report back on the results. Does your wife have any anise oil? That's a scent that I know works.

Congratulations. That's a good looking fish. I'm sure before long you'll have long lost count of how many you've caught. Caught my first bass on a blue w/ blue fleck t-rigged curly tail worm. I know I'll never forget that fish.

It's already beginning all the way down in these parts.

It also pays to check the line often for nicks/abrasion, especially with fluorocarbon. If I find a nick nowadays, I always cut it out and re-tie. Lost an incredible fish a long time ago because of this laziness... never again.

Is there any reason you don't fish the tidal Potomac? World class LMB fishery with a good chance of catching snakeheads too. There are some nice lakes in the DMV area, but if I'm fishing for largemouth there's really only one destination on my mind... the river. Lots of 4-7lbers. lurking out there. Nothing against Occoquan, btw. I know that there are some real hogs in there. I admit that I'm a river rat.

I'm available and up to the task

The pointer is one of the notable exceptions that I was referring to. There are several larger tackle manufacturers that are doing R&D to create innovative baits, I was simply stating that most commercially available tackle is more or less the same old stuff.

Back in August, LOL.

I find it amusing that the newscaster said "snag a tasty treat." I'm assuming whoever is fishing those ponds is probably c&r'ing those fish, but who knows. I'm actually somewhat doubtful that they were indeed smallies. Could be, but my gut tells me that this was mis-reported. In the video it's really hard to tell, they could be LMB.

Still have my first rod (a 6' Zebco MF Fiberglass.) It feels like it weighs 10lbs. when I hold it now Caught some nice trout on that rod fishing with my Dad. I should use the rod once in a while. My friend has the matching rod for your Ryobi reel. It's a 7'7" MM glass rod; killer cranking rod.

To each his own. I fish some heavy weeds too but never felt that I needed anything heavier than 30lb. braid. I'm usually fishing for snakeheads in that stuff too, which are commonly over 10lbs. Never had a problem pulling one through the heavy weeds on 15-30lb. braid.