I caught this fish in the Potomac (Four Mile Run/Alexandria area) last summer, but have been struggling to identify it. Unfortunately this is the only picture I have. At first I thought it was some sort of catfish, but it was missing any significant barbels. Any help is much appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Florian

 

Looks like the Snakeheads we have down here. What did the rest of the body look like?

Or a bowfin possibly.

catfish he is missing his whiskers

catfish he is missing his whiskers

X2

Ive never fished the Potomac but I know we have a snakehead problem there.  Hard to say from that picture.  Maybe a description of the rest of it?

It has no scales so it's not a snakehead or bowfin. 99% sure that's a channel cat, can see one of the top whiskers just to the left of the bait and it has a serious overbite which channel cats have. 

Just googled channel catfish pictures.  http://www.torange.us/photo/7/13/Channel-catfish-1287747627_62.jpg  That pretty much looks like what you have minus the barbels.

Catfish minus whiskers. I wonder why it doesn't have any whiskers?

I'd say a cat, but I have never seen one without its whiskers.

looks like a channel catfish to me. i catch them out of smith mountain lake often and sometimes theyre missing a whisker or two...

It's possible the whiskers are just stuck under the fishes mouth. I've caught several missing most of their whiskers. Might be from rooting around in the rocks or log jams, maybe a close call with a snapping turtle or bird. Their whiskers are soft and pretty thin so it doesn't take a lot to get one torn off.

thanks for all the replies! It definitely was not a snakehead, it looked like a catfish to me as well, but then again the whole no whiskers thing kind of threw me off. But I guess if catfish with missing whiskers are not that uncommon then that's what it was.

It's definitely a catfish...as for the no barbels thing, well, I live in the Potomac river area, and having seen the types who fish this area (esp 4 mile run, VERY unrban setting) I wouldn't be surprised if someone caught it and ripped off the whiskers just to torture the fish.  Not a meat fisherman, who would've kept it, but some bored, punk kid.  I've seen similar instances.  I'm not saying this is what happened, but I wouldn't rule it out.

I agree that it's a catfish. On a side note, I have heard some rumors that there are Nile Tilapia being caught at 4 Mile Run at the outflow from the water treatment plant. There is at least one verified (check this post from the Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders for the pics.) Look at the first post by "Shawn" for the pics:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/tidal-potomac-fly-rodders/MgKhUe4WvVg