How to Fish For Snakeheads

[BrownHL]

For those of us with snakeheads in our waters, here is a good web site on how to fish for them. http://www.snakeheadpro.com/

[texasbasser]

Anyone wanna ship me a couple snakeheads? Maybe 2 males and 2 females? I NEED to catch one of these.

TB

[lilmule]

You could go to asia,as for them being here some one imported them,its not legal to do so ,as it has no natural enemies and spreads.Considered invasive,a definate threat to native species.

[walkeraviator]

If you catch em... kill em....

[TN_Bassin]

ughh. Just seeing pictures of those fish in North America makes me sick. As far as how to catch them... I can't see them being any more picky than a bowfin. As in throw anything and reel it in.

[texasbasser]

Ive never really understood this.
I know that most everyone is concerned about them being a invasive species and all, which is true, and shouldnt be in public bodies of water. But honestly, id rather have a stock tank on my ranch full of snakeheads, peacocks, and carp because they are better fights than bass, hands down. Dont get me wrong, I love bassfishing too, but i guess i just like to pursuit stronger/bigger fish..

I think it should be legal to own with a valid permit, just like Grass Carp. IMO

TB

[doc]

Originally Posted by texasbasser

Ive never really understood this.
I know that most everyone is concerned about them being a invasive species and all, which is true, and shouldnt be in public bodies of water. But honestly, id rather have a stock tank on my ranch full of snakeheads, peacocks, and carp because they are better fights than bass, hands down. Dont get me wrong, I love bassfishing too, but i guess i just like to pursuit stronger/bigger fish..

I think it should be legal to own with a valid permit, just like Grass Carp. IMO

TB

Well it's a good thing you like them, because between them and the asian carp in another 10-20 yrs (if it takes that long) this will be www.thereaintnobasslefttobefishin.com

[texasbasser]

Ill disagree with you on that. IMO they are not going to take over america and kill all the bass.. Its just another thing people on forums blow way out of proportion, just like the world was gonna end with BP oil spill...

BTW I just got back from a fishing trip in mississippi.

TB

[Kevin]

Having the Potomac as one of my home waters (and just 2 days ago I caught an 8 lb. snakehead)... I'm well aware of the threat they pose...

While I'm certainly not qualified to make any hard predictions... I don't think Snakehead are as a big a threat as they are made out to be.

I predict they just become another gamefish that will bite bass lures... just like pickeral, northerns, and so on.

Right now, I'm not too worried about them. Hopefully I'm right.

[3dkicker]

I'm with Kevin. So far no snakeheads have been dissected by VA Dept Game and Fish, John Odenkirk, have had bass in their stomachs. Bass have been found with snakeheads in theirs. Not to say that they won't but the bass population on the river hasn't been affected yet at all and the snakeheads have been in the river for over 5 years now.

They are fun to catch and fight just like bowfin, except for the tarpon type jumps, and bust up baits just as well.

Snakeheadpro.com should add chatterbait to their lists of baits that catch snakeheads.

[walkeraviator]

here is my take on it... the reasons people dont like em or call em a danger to bass populations is not just because they wil eat the bass... they claim:

The reproduce with very large hatches... so does every fish

They have no natural predators... seems to me a gator will eat a snakehead as fast as they would a bass... and when tehy are fry, they are just as vulnerable as anything else

They are aggressive... so is every predatory fish...

[3dkicker]

But they walk across the ground, eat small children and dogs, and their fins light up blue when the fire comes out of their mouths.......

[Kevin]

I actually hope they get rid of the "you must kill it" law and let us just release the fish live back into the water.

Snakeheads have become so prolific in the Potomac that taking them out is near futile in my opinion.

While I certainly don't mind killing them to eat... I'm not that big of a fish eater, so finding someone that wants to take it is not only a pain, but not always possible either.

Not to mention you shouldn't eat too many fish out of the Potomac.

I definitely agreed with the "kill it" law earlier on because I felt there was good reason behind it. But now that they are everywhere (on the Potomac), I'm starting to feel like I'm killing a fish for no reason whatsoever.

I'll continue to abide by the current regulations.... I just hope they realize the regulations are futile now and drop it.

[lilmule]

They arnt everywhere,in Tn there arnt any,it is an invasive species that can walk to another body of water,and does take food native species would eat regardless if its going to take over or not.From looking at pics do surmise be a lot like a pike,and may even fight similar dont know dont desire to find out,If I did id go to where they exist at,not import them.
As for eating anything from the Potomac good luck,it gets well fertilized from the dc area.

[3dkicker]

Spoke with a friend yesterday and he said one boat brought in 26 of them to the weigh in last Weds. Caught that many out of Nanjemoy in 3.5 hours. Also had a limit of bass too.
Met a guy who claimed he caught one out of Quantico that weighed 18lbs. Said he had it weighed by VDGIF. Haven't seen anything about it though. That would be a state record.

[Abbeysdad]

Originally Posted by texasbasser

Ill disagree with you on that. IMO they are not going to take over america and kill all the bass.. Its just another thing people on forums blow way out of proportion, just like the world was gonna end with BP oil spill...
TB

Well along those lines, don't be fooled. Like many, I was a regular watcher of the 'Deadliest Catch' and 'After the Catch' shows. Those fishermen were sick about the BP situation in the gulf because they said the Alaska fishery in the area of the Exxon Valdez oil spill back in 1989 remains devastated to this day, 20+ years later! The oil that spewed from that well is so much worse than a single tanker.

The EPA has opened up some fishing, but what seafood is being caught is not suitable for sale.

The world didn't come to an end, but I think thousands of people have lost their direct and indirect fishing related jobs and the fishery may never fully recover. Factor in trickle down economics and higher costs for lower quality imported seafood and the true impact is difficult to measure.

I know, it's easy to just look the other way, like we have in the wake of Katrina - and see what New Orleans looks like to this day.

I honestly don't know how snakeheads impacts eco-systems that they have 'invaded'. But there is truth that killing the few that are caught is likely not going to make much difference in places they are established.

Some years ago I read that earthworms were suddenly destroying some midwest woodlands. It seems theses forests had previously not had any native earthworms, so the forest floor had a large layer of duff, the result of fallen leaves that took a very long time to breakdown. This encouraged the growth of specific flora and fauna, and shielded against other species. But suddenly the forest began changing so studies concluded that the introduction of earthworms had resulted in the rapid breakdown of the duff on the forest floor. This caused new plant species to take hold and crowd out previous species, totally changing the understory.
It is suspected that fishermen and/or gardeners released the worms. Who would think that such an innocent action would result in such a dramatic affect.
So what makes this so bad...well, what if brush now grows rampant where it could never have grown before, making these forests tinder boxes during dry spells with ensuing forest fires with incredible devastation...something that may never have happened without the release of a few worms.

Makes you stop and think.

[Rebbasser]

Originally Posted by texasbasser

Anyone wanna ship me a couple snakeheads? Maybe 2 males and 2 females? I NEED to catch one of these.

TB

No, you don't, buddy! We do NOT want them in our neck of the woods.

[Tall]

There are deadly in the south to largemouth Bass. Their is a video you can search that shows a snake-head fish released in an aquarium that went straight to a largemouth bass and killed it within a second.

The Arkansas Game and Fish along with the FEDS just spent a lot of money and several days killing all the snake-head fish that had gotten out of a PVT reservoir into the water ways in eastern Arkansas a couple years ago.

They are deadly and can reproduce at a high rate in shallow warm back waters. Be-careful what you ask for if you want these fish around.

Do some research and you may not like what you read concerning these deadly fish if you like to Bass fish.

[keithdog]

We don't have any around here, but are they any good for eatting? I've heard they are. And I know you southern boys will eat anything.