Snakehead Whisperer

Welcome to the site Chris. I'm happy to hear that you returned to fishing, as there's no shortage of good fishing in the DMV.

Sounds painful. I worked at a Benjamin Moore paint store when I was a teenager and learned how to eye match colors from an old timer. I think that people tend to over complicate this and are oblivious to the fact that color is a science and results will never vary (e.g. yellow and blue make green, period.) I was taught with a simple color wheel. Off whites were always the most challenging colors to match with the type of paints we were mixing.

BPS The Egg is probably the best wakebait on the market today. The hooks are garbage though, so change them out if you fish this lure.

I'd like to think that I can cast 100 yards, but I can't substantiate that. If I can cast 100 yards it would definitely be on my Abu C3 with a larger crankbait.

Thanks man. I know some serious artists who use Paasche stuff (but most that I know of use the Iwatas.) I first decided to make my own lures because I wasn't able to find very many lure manufacturers that built non-standard stuff (for instance, it's really difficult to find silent/rattle-less crankbaits generally speaking.) It's been an uphill climb and I've had more than my fair share of lures that blow out when I test them on the water. Deep divers are especially difficult to make. I used hand tools for everything up until last year. Judging by the crankbaits I've seen that you painted I can tell you have a good eye and a steady hand. There's not much else needed to build them from scratch (well, a lot of patience helps.) If you're half as good with tools as you are with the airbrush I'm sure you could create some top-shelf baits. Just a thought. Keep up the good work.

True. This guy and the reel are peerless.

While they look very similar, technically rock bass and warmouth are from a different genus.

Fill a garbage bag with leaves or soil, place it on some dirt and leave it sit in the same place for a couple of weeks. Pick it up and collect them in broad daylight (along with some slugs if you so choose.) It might also be a good idea to cull some from store bought bait to get started with your farm, although that might take the fun out of it. I know that's how the walleye guys breed the really fat ones.

Impressive video. But to be fair the plug was 21 grams, which is more like 3/4oz.

@Christian M No prob. I had to learn all of this the hard way. If I had been able to read both of our posts when I got started, it would have saved me a lot of grief. @MichiganFishing1997 I hope you go for it and start painting hard baits. The feeling of catching fish on your own creation is unreal. You're right though about the money factor. I started out by carving a piece of scrap wood into a popper and that led to an obsession. I now have a substantial investment in my lure building shop, but it's a labor of love... so I don't regret it. These baits in the photos are made from scratch.

Life does find a way, but snakeheads don't slither (well the fry can, but not adult snakeheads.)

Been planning to pull the transaxle out of my VW and get it back on the road. I was going to do this when the weather got nice, but you know how that goes. One thing that I've noticed is that it's kind of hard to have a good day on the water if I don't handle my responsibilities first. It's like the bass won't bite if they know I had something more important to do that day.

Agreed. Littering is just ghetto. I see guys in boats do that stuff too (like throwing cigarette butts or used plastics in the water.) Bow fisherman in these parts shoot gar and just throw them on the bank to rot. What a waste.

While I was out on the water today I got to thinking of this thread. As mentioned before, bucket fishermen don't bother me at all if they are within the law. One thing that does really bug me though is bass boats that speed through no-wake zones at 40+ MPH. And bass boaters who have no regard for the safety of others on the water give all of us a bad name. I can't tell you how often I see this, and it's really lame. Another thought that came to mind was that many heavily invested bass fisherman are as ignorant to fishing knowledge as their bucket sitting counterparts. I can't tell you how many times I've been out on the water in my canoe and witnessed guys in $50,000 boats get skunked when the bite was good and the fishing was easy, throwing the same baits (probably a spinnerbait) all day and never getting so much as a bite (meanwhile I can't keep the fish off of my t-rig or ds.) The point being that ignorance doesn't discriminate at all (race, economic class, region or otherwise.) Perhaps the bucket fisherman is smarter than the guy in the Nitro, as buckets only cost a few bucks. My 2¢.

Couldn't have put it any better myself

I always check the stomach contents when cleaning them. I've found a few large sunfish, some crayfish, a duckling, a mouse, a small muskrat, and a few frogs. Most often though I find large numbers of small baitfish (like killifish or dace,) even in the larger ones. Once while fishing at Mallow's Bay in MD I hooked a snakehead on a horny toad and it broke free. One of the horny toads legs was missing when I got it back to the boat. About 3 weeks later I caught a snakehead in the same area, brought it home and found the leg in it's stomach

Great topic, this really made my day.

For numbers I'd go with a Manns 1-Minus or something similar. I throw muskie sized baits too with decent success (5+ inch, 1+oz. shallow diving cranks.) In the pic on the right the fish has the crankbait hanging out of it's mouth. Ironically the larger fish on the left was caught on a mini egg (similar to a baby 1-minus, about a 2.5" bait.)

Catch and release is gaining in popularity all over the world. Catch and release toman (giant snakehead) fishing is the norm in Thailand, for instance. Whatever the attitudes of bass fisherman are, it's hard to argue with the fact that we hook them in the face and manhandle them. Imagine if you went to take a bite out of a sandwich and then a t-rigged hook pops out of the bread and pulls you by your lips up to a space ship. Bass fishing is not in the best interest of the bass (though bass fisherman do a fine job of being stewards to the environment in many ways.) With that said I have to agree with the other posters that make the point that if people are fishing within the law, then it's their business what they do with the fish. The bottom line is that when a sustenance fisherman kills a fish it gets eaten, but when a 'sportsman' inadvertently kills a fish nobody knows where it ends up.

I'll second all of what Delfi said. Typically I will catch them in less than 12" of water. This is not to say that snakeheads are shore huggers. The tidal Potomac has numerous shallow flats that are hundreds of yards from the shore. These areas have also proved productive. Unlike bass, the fish will not orient to the drop offs but rather the density of the vegetation (e.g. the more dense the vegetation the greater the likelihood of finding snakeheads.)

2 words... Wake Bait

Get a black/blue one and a chart/white/blue one. $10 and you're good to go.

As far as the lower end Abu's go I would personally choose a BCX over the others ($59. Never tried the ___max.) But that would be hard to justify when the Swedish made C3/C4 are both around $100. 2 of the best freshwater reels ever made imho.

That's why I spend money there and recommend them to people. Glad they took care of you too.

That's a great point. BPS has always taken good care of me as a customer. If you return something within 30 days it's usually no questions asked.