Snakehead Whisperer

Gonna be a toss up between the Strike King Dream Shot/Fat Baby Finesse, and Chompers DS Worms.

Nice. Really like the Hildebrandt line of baits. The "Snagless Sally" is a killer snakehead bait fished in spatterdock.

Try to pull the fish away from the cover during the initial hookset. That way the fish doesn't react and start taking out drag until you've already pulled it into open water. Not sure if I read the question right, but it's a bad idea to adjust the drag while you have a fish on unless it's an absolute emergency situation. Usually I will adjust the drag on my lighter rigs to about 1/3-1/2 the breaking point of the line/knots.

Not my fish, but thanks. That's a 3/8oz. bass jig in it's mouth.

Funny that this topic comes up today. My friend caught this earlier this morning. It's not a crappie or bream, but just as astounding. This little guy was 7-8" tops. x3 on the roadrunners, although I personally prefer the Northland Whistler jigs. Same difference.

x3, in red size 5/O.

We were genuinely trying to help you, but we're not mind readers. Your question is about as vague as it can be. The website I linked to is the best tackle making website on Earth. What exactly do you want to know that you can't find there? This. Wish there was a sage mode so I didn't have to bump this thread.

DMF has the absolute best slogan in the world... "Our worms catch fish or die trying." lol

This one?

Also looks like a Heddon Crazy Crawler with a prop on the tail.

Maybe you should install a guillotine in the boat locker... problem solved Seriously though, I don't have any carpet so I can just hose off my floor when I get home. I can only imagine how messy it must be if you have a bass boat.

I love fishing bucktails for bass, and they seem to be as effective (or more so at times) without a trailer.

x2. These jigs with a paca craw trailer are killer. The SK bitsy bug craw trailers are ok too, though they don't last as long as the pacas and they're harder to thread onto the hook. They are the best value out there. At $1-2.00 ea. it's hard to beat.

This is why I usually stock up on snakehead and then throw a bbq. Everyone gets to have some, but nobody eats more than 2oz. or so. I do this maybe 3-4 times a year and rarely eat it otherwise. Once I saw MD DNR citing a guy who had 2 live snakehead fry in a minnow bucket and was using them as bait. The fine was several hundred dollars.

They do eat a lot of carp and catfish, though they are smaller. And what you say is true. I caught a 35" tagged fish in Washington DC and VDGIF told me the fish was 3 years old and that it was released in the Occoquan river.

This is obviously oversimplified, but if I had one piece of advice to give is to slow down your presentation. I don't know what baits you're throwing or what the cadence of your retrieve is, but fishing too fast is probably the most common mistake made by inexperienced folks that I see. I usually switch over to primarily finesse techniques within 60-90 minutes after sunrise, and I don't switch back to action baits until the late afternoon. There are obviously exceptions to this, but I find that it's a safer bet to fish a finesse presentation if you're not sure. Typically during the day the rigs I use most often are the following... -dropshot -jig -t-rig -c-rig Slow rolled spinnerbaits or crankbaits can help find fish, but not if the fish aren't in the mood to chase down these baits.

I've kept them for up to 3-4 hours dead on the floor of my canoe in 90° heat and they were fine to eat. Didn't taste much of a difference between those and the ones that went straight into the cooler. Unlike most other freshwater fish, I find that the larger ones taste better, nor is there much difference in fish caught in cool/warm water. After I started catching them with regularity I dedicated an old cooler specifically for snakeheads, as they're huge and bleed a lot. I clean it with bleach, but it's still pretty disgusting in there To freeze them I usually filet and wash them really well, then freeze in tupperware with no water. I wouldn't recommend freezing them longer than 3 months however (I have about 20lbs. of snakehead meat in my freezer from last fall, and the flavor declined significantly after 4 months.) Like I said earlier the jaw and shoulder areas should be carefully removed and eaten too. These are some of the best cuts in my opinion. IMHO grilling is by far the tastiest (and healthiest) way to cook snakeheads. They make incredible fish tacos.

No prob. Welcome to the site.

The line sure helps. Last fall I caught a 10lber on my 9' ultra light crappie rig with 2lb. mono. The fight was epic, but I eventually boated the fish.

Thanks. I too have a great deal of respect for these fish and I too have mixed feelings about killing them. I carry a sharp machete on my boat and sever the spine in one good whack. I don't want the fish to suffer, and I make sure that the meat is consumed if I kill the fish (snakehead jaw is good stuff too, don't overlook this cut.) I'd be a liar if I said that I hadn't C&R'd snakehead. And for those who have any questions as to the legality of this, please see this page VA Snakehead Info. When fishing in Maryland waters I always dispatch the fish in accordance with the law (and I usually do in VA too, but there's only so much space in my freezer ) It's illegal to possess a live snakehead no matter what state you are in so I would advise either dispatching/releasing the fish immediately if fishing in VA or the district, or promptly dispatching the fish in MD (they will cite for this and the fines are hefty.) Of course, I would always advise for people to read the regulations themselves and not take my word for it.

Before northern snakeheads were in the river 5lb. lmb were a rarity. They're pretty common nowadays, but like I said water quality and other factors are also relevant. One sure thing is that the snakeheads have not had the devastating impact that was dreadfully feared 10 years ago. But like Delfi said the snakeheads still need to be studied more extensively for a conclusive answer, and they are still relatively new here. The northern snakeheads in the Potomac are already diverging from the predictable behavior and migration that they exhibit in their native Amur river drainage, so it's still hard to say where it will all lead.

Ok, fair enough. I do realize that there are some bowfin in the Potomac river. The point that I was trying to make is that the likelihood of catching a snakehead is far greater than the likelihood of catching a bowfin in the tidal Potomac. The bowfin population in the Potomac is marginal at best, and the chance of catching one is very slim. As for bowfishing for snakehead... the guys who do it fair much better than rod and reel anglers as far as numbers, and also as far as size so far.

The Potomac river doesn't have a bowfin population (not sure about the canals in Florida or the area of PA where the OP says they were found.)

Couldn't have said it any better myself, especially the part highlighted in red.

Nice fish. I like the bowfin, but I also really love to fish for snakehead. No argument here that snakehead are one of the most fun freshwater fish to bend a rod. I was only curious, as I seem to get a feeling that a lot of people view the bowfin (and gar for that matter) as "trash fish" with no sport or food value. I don't even like the term trash fish, it's just an observation. It just surprises me that more folks don't target them specifically.