Snakehead Opinions?

[Bass Ninja]

I know some guys like fishing for snakeheads. I saw this today. What do you guys think? 

 

https://www.foxnews.com/science/snakehead-fish-discovered-georgia

[Choporoz]

4 minutes ago, Bass Ninja said:

I know some guys like fishing for snakeheads. I saw this today. What do you guys think? 

 

https://www.foxnews.com/science/snakehead-fish-discovered-georgia

 

I think a snakehead went down to Georgia...probably looking for a soul to steal

 

 

[the reel ess]

Catch as many as you can and eat them all. They're supposedly good.

[Seafury]

So far from what all I have seen and read here in NoVa, DC, and MD.....

 

There has been no negative impacts from the Northern Snakehead infestation.

 

Just more fish to catch, and more fun for more people.

 

The bigger issue I find is lack of decent sized, and quantity, game fish, and or how intelligent they have become, everywhere publicly accessible. Especially in water that does NOT have Snakeheads.

 

Waters all pressured, few fish, and they are all super smart / lazy to bite.

[Choporoz]

8 minutes ago, Seafury said:

 

There has been no negative impacts from the Northern Snakehead infestation.

 

I wouldn't say 'no negative impacts'....just this year, I've lost three chatterbaits, one of which was a Jackhammer, a Pop Max and a Gunfish to those things

[Junger]

You better hide your dogs and cats if you live near the water. These "fish" will crawl on land and hunt your pets. There's even a non-fictional movie about them that shows how good they can stalk forage on land.

 

 

 

[MN Fisher]

7 minutes ago, Junger said:

You better hide your dogs and cats if you live near the water. These "fish" will crawl on land and hunt your pets. There's even a non-fictional movie about them that shows how good they can stalk forage on land.

SMH:

"In the Animal Planet TV series River Monsters, Jeremy Wade shows a dramatization of a snakehead, "the fish from hell", stalking an unsuspecting baby and Chihuahua. With the help of a snakehead researcher, however, Wade shows that although it is capable of living outside of water and is able to move on land, its weak pectoral muscles make movement difficult and render the snakehead an unlikely "stalker" on land."

[Junger]

1 minute ago, MN Fisher said:

SMH:

"In the Animal Planet TV series River Monsters, Jeremy Wade shows a dramatization of a snakehead, "the fish from hell", stalking an unsuspecting baby and Chihuahua. With the help of a snakehead researcher, however, Wade shows that although it is capable of living outside of water and is able to move on land, its weak pectoral muscles make movement difficult and render the snakehead an unlikely "stalker" on land."

Gosh, can't a guy spread fake news in peace around here!

 

 

[NYWayfarer]

I would love to catch one. They fight like demons!

[MN Fisher]

1 minute ago, Junger said:

Gosh, can't a guy spread fake news in peace around here!

Not when there's so many people who actually think that the stuff that 'Skiffy' and the 'non-History Channel' put out is truth.

[Junger]

9 minutes ago, NYWayfarer said:

I would love to catch one. They fight like demons!

If you're in the DC area in late spring or summer, I'll take you out to try for them. Sometimes they fight hard, sometimes they're just a dead weight. But most of the time, I lose them on a hook set because they're aerial specialists. I had one follow a horny toad creating a huge wake, I pause the toad and it slams it then it did a freaking backward somersault back into the hydrilla. I didn't even have a chance to set the hook. 

5 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Not when there's so many people who actually think that the stuff that 'Skiffy' and the 'non-History Channel' put out is truth.

You'd be surprised at how bass fisherman are already prejudiced against them, whenever I put a catch of a SH on fishbrain, I get like 50 comments like "kill them or they will eat your babies"! Hopefully you got that my post of that video was a joke referring to that prejudice.

[MN Fisher]

6 minutes ago, Junger said:

You'd be surprised at how bass fisherman are already prejudiced against them, whenever I put a catch of a SH on fishbrain, I get like 50 comments like "kill them or they will eat your babies"!

Well, there's your issue - FishBrain is like another social-media platform with the same initials - lots of negativity...which is why I left that other one years ago.

 

7 minutes ago, Junger said:

Hopefully you got that my post of that video was a joke referring to that prejudice.

I do now - but my sarcasm meter has been out of whack for a while so I take things literally too often.

[JustJames]

If we would have snakehead here, i’d be a happy camper. It fun to catch, fight hard and good to consume, I think it like them more than catfish. 

[sully420]

2 hours ago, Choporoz said:

I wouldn't say 'no negative impacts'....just this year, I've lost three chatterbaits, one of which was a Jackhammer, a Pop Max and a Gunfish to those things

Now you feel the pain of us northern anglers. Pike love jackhammers, pipers, swimbaits, well really everything.

[TnRiver46]

22 minutes ago, Bass_Fishing_Socal said:

If we would have snakehead here, i’d be a happy camper. It fun to catch, fight hard and good to consume, I think it like them more than catfish. 

If they found them in your state, fishing may be banned forever

[soflabasser]

2 hours ago, Junger said:

I had one follow a horny toad creating a huge wake, I pause the toad and it slams it then it did a freaking backward somersault back into the hydrilla.

I have had some vicious frog hits from snakeheads but never heard of one doing a backward somersault to evade capture. Maybe it watches gymnastics on YouTube? lol

1 hour ago, Bass_Fishing_Socal said:

If we would have snakehead here, i’d be a happy camper. It fun to catch, fight hard and good to consume, I think it like them more than catfish. 

I catch bullseye snakehead in South Florida and they are one of my favorite freshwater fish to catch. They hit hard, pull harder than a equal sized largemouth bass, and are very fun to catch on hollow belly frogs or other frog imitation lure.

[Logan S]

3 hours ago, Seafury said:

So far from what all I have seen and read here in NoVa, DC, and MD.....

 

There has been no negative impacts from the Northern Snakehead infestation.

 

Just more fish to catch, and more fun for more people.

 

The bigger issue I find is lack of decent sized, and quantity, game fish, and or how intelligent they have become, everywhere publicly accessible. Especially in water that does NOT have Snakeheads.

 

Waters all pressured, few fish, and they are all super smart / lazy to bite.

There's been no negative impacts YET or that we know of in the Potomac River and other tidal waters in the area....But you can't infer that they won't have an impact elsewhere.

 

I write this in every snakehead thread, so might as well do it here too....The fact that the doom and gloom predictions didn't come true is sort of a default, since they were talking about them eating dogs, cats, and small children.  Also, you can't point to the Potomac as an 'all-clear' story since the effect has SO FAR been minimal.  The Potomac is a huge system that already had frequent influxes of new predators, in the form of saltwater species that make it up into the bass waters (especially during dry years).  If any system was capable of handling a new predator being introduced, it's the Potomac.  In a smaller and/or closed system they could certainly have an impact on the existing fishery.

 

Snakehead fisherman are moving them around to new waters and THAT is the #1 problem IMO.  I have some other comments about that but I'll keep them to myself for now.  

 

The fish itself is entertaining to catch, but to me it's the same class as pike/pickeral...bycatch and a junk fish that I'm not targeting.  They way they eat a frog is impressive though, everyone should witness it ?
 

[Kdizzle]

My opinion is that I wish they would swim up the Mississippi and end up in the Ozarks somehow.  I'd like to tangle with one, but don't wanna have to go down south.

 

Unless or course its proven that they can have an affect on Smallmouth Bass populations, and then I wish that they would all be killed with fire.

[GReb]

One tore up my favorite swim jig a couple months back and got blood all over me and the boat carpet. Wish we didn’t have them. 

[greentrout]

6 hours ago, Bass Ninja said:

I know some guys like fishing for snakeheads. I saw this today. What do you guys think? 

 

https://www.foxnews.com/science/snakehead-fish-discovered-georgia

there goes the neighborhood ...

[Bird]

Snakeheads are an invasive species, Introduced by aquraist who found them to aggressive for they're tank mates. 

 

Rather than kill them, simply introduce them into local waters. 

 

I've actually heard they spawn 3 times per year, who knows. 

[Manly Studson]

7 hours ago, Choporoz said:

 

I think a snakehead went down to Georgia...probably looking for a soul to steal

I ran into snakehead last summer in Georgia. I was throwing a frog, and they were cutting the line with their sharp teeth. I assumed that snakehead had been found in Georgia before.

[Manly Studson]

6 hours ago, Choporoz said:

I wouldn't say 'no negative impacts'....just this year, I've lost three chatterbaits, one of which was a Jackhammer, a Pop Max and a Gunfish to those things

Right! Three casts... three frogs... gone! All in a row.

[YoTone]

Ive caught my share. I rarely target them specifically but once in a while in the dead of summer I'll target them. Over here Its very hard to catch 6lbs+ bass but its possible to catch a few snakeheads that size so I can understand why people go crazy over them. Ive eaten one of them I caught this year and found the meat to be too chewy for me to like. Theyre like eating over cooked shrimp.

[Seafury]

On 10/10/2019 at 12:39 PM, Choporoz said:

I wouldn't say 'no negative impacts'....just this year, I've lost three chatterbaits, one of which was a Jackhammer, a Pop Max and a Gunfish to those things

Lol, I guess there is some "collateral damage" after all.

 

Sucks losing gear, stuff can be expensive for sure!

 

I recently lost a $9 Rapala minnow, a $4 Panther Martin spinner, and a $8 Booya frog.

 

Granted mine were lost to structure and poor casting on my part.

 

Always something heh.