Snakehead Opinions?

[Seafury]

23 hours ago, Logan S said:

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 ?
 

The Northern Snakehead amphibian has been here over a decade now.

 

If their was going to be a negative impact, we would very likely know by now.

 

In fact the bass population exploded in the years after they were introduced, now things have leveled off somewhat.

This is what I have read in local stories and fish and game articles over and over.

Yes, we essentially dodged a bullet and got lucky, but I would consider it a win at this point.

 

The reasons for this are fairly simple to understand from what I have read.

 

1) They spawn 3 times per year, and have 10k to 40k fry per spawn.

Our game fish eat the hell out of these fry, giving a food boost to our native game fish.

Where our native fish spawn once per year. This increases the available food supply tremendously for our native fish.

 

2) The adult ones do not seem keen to eat our game fish as our fish are fast and tough, where as the snakeheads have fairly tender skin and are easily torn up by our game fish. They also seem to prefer other amphibians instead of other fish for food.

 

3) They are not as aggressive or dangerous as we have been lead to believe.....unless you are a frog that is lol.

Yes they have scary teeth, but like pike and musky are just not that bloodthirsty. If they were, we would have a problem.

 

4) They are not able to migrate on land, this is a myth. Yes, they can sorta of wiggle around, but there is no documented case of them walking to a new area. They breath air, and can survive out of water for about 48 hours if they can stay moist, that's it. This is probably an adaptation to survive dry seasons, and low oxygen environments in SE Asia where they came from.

 

5) Asian immigrants brought them here to eat, and they probably stocked them in some local waters thinking they would die in the winter, but somehow they can survive by going into a sort of hibernation. Then people also had them as pets, and some one released them into other waters for various reasons, and they are unstoppable breeders.

Florida is full of invasive fish from all over the world, so far, the native fishery world has not ended there either.

 

6) They prefer warm, dirty, dark, muddy, low oxygen, and shallow water. I don't see them getting much further up the Potomac, or surviving in any of our more pristine waters inland. This means our Smallmouth are safe, and definitely our trout. I have not heard of much if any as far north as point of rocks MD, let alone any further norther or inland other then a few muddy lakes and ponds where some one stocked them.

 

At the end of the day, they are an illegal immigrant fish, but they are here to stay now, no way to stop them all due to their rapid breeding, and luckily they have not caused any negative effects to our native fisheries, and have instead provided extra fun, and food for our citizens to enjoy.

 

They should never have gotten loose here, but it seems now we just have to make the best of it.

 

Considering in 40 years fishing this area I have never even seen a pike or musky let alone caught one, I welcome the chance at a toothy fresh water fish lol.

[Logan S]

@Seafury  You missed the point of my post...Which is that just because they haven't had a drastic impact on the Potomac (yet or that we know of) doesn't mean they won't have a negative impact in other waters.  And they keep showing up in new places because fisherman are intentionally (illegally) moving them into new waters.  This is the real problem with them.  

[JustJames]

@Seafuryyou know more than me and I’m Asian lol. You are right most of the count  the one that more dangerous and can eat everything and doesn’t taste good is giant snakehead (shown in river monster) not Northern Snakehead.

@Logan SI also understand your point, a lot of fishermen are selfish think about themself, Me included, been dreaming about adding some snakeheads, tilapia into my lake, but moral always get to me first.

[VolFan]

We called them Potomac Pike in DC. A ton of fun to fish for and very tasty - I didnt see the catestrophic results over 8+ years when I was there. However - blue catfish have been wreaking havoc with shad runs and striper. Theyre getting over 60 lbs and can eat most anything and everything.

[soflabasser]

On 10/11/2019 at 4:31 PM, Seafury said:

Florida is full of invasive fish from all over the world, so far, the native fishery world has not ended there either.

I grew up in South Florida and can tell you from personal experience (not something I read online) that fishing for native freshwater fish is excellent. It is common for me to catch largemouth bass over 5 pounds in the same waters that have spotted tilapia, mayan cichlid, peacock bass, and other exotic fish. I also catch a bunch of 1-4 pound bass in these waters and catch more bass than snakeheads. Largemouth bass are excellent predators and are known for eating baby snakeheads and eating other ''invasive fish''. I also do well with other native freshwater fish such as bowfin, gar, bluegill, etc. With that said I find it funny how some of the biggest snakehead haters I know are the ones who fish for them the most. It is like their life goal is to get rid of snakeheads and that is a goal they will never accomplish that you can bet on. Snakeheads are here to stay and might as well enjoy fishing for them.

[Mhan7]

On 10/11/2019 at 12:46 PM, YoTone said:

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.

Oddly, they are not all like that.  I've only had one that had this, but you are exactly right about describing that one.

Generally, they have something much closer to the texture of a well done tuna steak (without the dryness).  I spoke to a researcher who has been quoted in several articles, for his research on this.  In general he was pretty knowledgeable, but he didn't give me a satisfactory explanation for this phenomena.

 

When they're not all rubbery feeling, the meat is excellent, and you can use it for almost any type of fish or chicken recipe.  I'm not gonna go all Bubba Gump here, you know what I'm talking about.

On 10/10/2019 at 4:32 PM, Logan S said:

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.

 

Agree with this.  We shouldn't be arbitrarily introducing a species, just because we like it.  By the same token, we shouldn't wantonly lay waste to it, just because we don't.

 

Since the introduction of snakeheads in the Northern territories, scientists have observed approximately a 4% decrease in the numbers of largemouth bass in the fisheries.  However, that cannot be directly attributable to snakeheads.  There are also other species at play in the same waters.

 

Here in Florida, I have yet to find any bass in the stomachs of any caught snakeheads.  In fact, most of the time, their stomachs are empty.  Which prompts me to believe that they tend to eat when they're hungry, rather than just gorging.  When we do find stomach contents, it's usually mosquito fish, killies, or other snakeheads.  Summer months always means frogs...

[dave]

On 10/12/2019 at 5:10 PM, VolFan said:

We called them Potomac Pike in DC. A ton of fun to fish for and very tasty - I didnt see the catestrophic results over 8+ years when I was there. However - blue catfish have been wreaking havoc with shad runs and striper. Theyre getting over 60 lbs and can eat most anything and everything.

?

[gnappi]

Nowadays I rarely catch LMB, those I do catch are rather large 4 to 5 lb. In most places where SH are thick I rarely see small bass under 2 pounds or so where small fish were once plentiful. Fact not fiction of some desk jockey fish biologist who claims they have no impact.

 

That said, through necessity nowadays and for the past few years I mostly target snakeheads, while Peacocks and LMB are a sort of accidental bycatch. When water cools down fishing for them slows down and I look to landlocked areas not inhabited by SH for LMB and Peas.

 

The firm meat of SH is snow white and great tasting fried, and fish 8 pounds and up yield the best fillets. They're a super tough fighting fish, and 20-30 lb. black braid (no leader) and a heavy rod is minimum tackle because hookset is insanely hard as their bony mouths make it so. Frogs are best bait for me, mono has lost one too many fish, I have yet to lose one with braid. I never release them back into the water. 

 

Where we put heavy pressure (some night fish with bow for them) on removing them we see small bass coming back onto the scene.

 

Oh and I have done necropsy of large SH with LMB in the stomach.

 

 

[gnappi]

On 12/2/2019 at 2:48 PM, Eric Rybak said:

catch as many as you can and do not release any of them

Catch and kill is a subject that divides and polarizes fishermen. 

 

I see to it that they do not go back in the water, but many I know of return them to the water.

 

The solution is for all anglers to eat them. There's no moral issue then :-)  

[roadwarrior]

KILL them all.

 

[TnRiver46]

50 minutes ago, Eric Rybak said:

I'm a catch and release angler but I have zero reservations killing snakeheads or asian carp if I catch one. I worked on a Colorado River cutthroat trout project a few years ago for the state of Utah. We would electroshock entire sections of mountain streams and document/release cutties we caught and kill every brook trout we caught. Brook trout were introduced decades ago and have completely supplanted cutties in much of their native ranges. For every cuttie we caught, we caught 6 brook trout.

 

we would catch 20-40 brook trout per 100 meter section of stream. After we measured them, one of us would carry the bucket of brook trout to the side of the mountain away from the stream and dump them. We killed more than 2000 brook trout during my time there. I had zero confliction about what we were doing. we were there to help cutties

The only problem is when you kill 2000, they just send 5000 more 

[Bird]

I've watched to many videos of Snakeheads ripping apart equal size LM to know they will have an impact wherever introduced.

 

I use to fish with my feet dangling in the water on hot summer days. Lol

[BassNJake]

I guess it just depends on who you ask and what type of studies have been done.

 

https://www.fws.gov/northeast/marylandfisheries/pdf/FINAL_Blackwater-Fish-Community-Comparison.pdf

 

From the study: We replicated the 2006 and 2007 surveys (preSnakehead) over a year from 2018-2019 (post-Snakehead). Over all sampling periods we caught 35 species (32 fish species and 3 invertebrate species) totaling over 50,000 individuals. Of 21 species that were captured both pre- and post-Snakehead, 17 declined in relative abundance with percent reductions ranging from 30%-97%. We found that five of six sites had significantly different fish communities when comparing pre-Snakehead and post-Snakehead surveys. The main difference in fish communities was a reduction in overall biomass of most fish.

[Sam]

On 10/10/2019 at 12:30 PM, 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.

Seafury, to expand on your post, I was told that Maryland no longer is asking anglers to kill the snakeheads they catch.

 

If you get the "willies" from seeing a snake pattern you will not like snakeheads. It their python markings don't bother you then enjoy catching and eating them.

 

In Virginia, I am not sure if the state is still requiring us to kill the ones we catch. Will get it clarified at the Richmond Fishing Expo when I speak to the conservation officers about this situation and will let all know.

 

Sooner or later we will be having snakehead tournaments.

[soflabasser]

The invasive Alabama spotted bass is far worse than any exotic fish species in South Florida. Alabama bass are spawning with redeye bass, shoal bass, smallmouth bass and they are ruining the pure genetics of many black bass species in many Southern states. These Alabama spotted bass where introduced by careless tournament fishermen and other people who wanted to catch these fish in waters these fish are not native to. Good thing Alabama spotted bass do not do well in South Florida since I enjoy catching pure strain Florida largemouth bass.

[Logan S]

Neither MD or VA have required snakeheads to be killed for many years....However both still encourage and recommend all snakeheads caught to be killed.  

 

https://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Pages/snakehead.aspx

"What can you do? If you catch a northern snakehead, harvest it."

 

"The northern snakehead has been described as a voracious predator of fishes, freshwater crustaceans, and amphibians. Its native range (24-35°N) and temperature tolerance (0-30°C or 32-85°F) indicates that, if introduced, northern snakehead populations could become established throughout most of the contiguous United States and possibly adjoining Canadian provinces. Because of their feeding style, they could outcompete popular sport fish such as largemouth bass. Biologists are also concerned that they could introduce parasites and diseases that could harm native species."

 

 

https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/snakehead/

"the Department asks that all snakeheads be killed if possible."

"Ruffin’s Mill Pond has been joined recently by Hunting Run Reservoir (Spotsylvania County), Pelham Reservoir (Culpeper County), Abel Reservoir (Stafford County), Burke Lake (Fairfax County), and Occoquan Reservoir (Fairfax/Prince William line) as all waters receiving illegal stockings of northern snakeheads. An individual was arrested and prosecuted for illegally stocking snakeheads in Lake Brittle (Fauquier County) in 2015.  A bill was passed during the 2017 Virginia General Assemble providing for increased penalties for persons illegally moving (stocking) snakeheads.  Anglers are encouraged to visit these lakes and harvest all snakeheads caught. They are excellent table fare.  Snakeheads were found to be self-sustaining in Lake Anna (York drainage) in 2017. Thus far, none have been found downstream of North Anna Dam. However, as of May 2018; they were reported from multiple reservoirs in the James River watershed – undoubtedly a result of callous, illegal stocking from short-sighted individuals."

 

It's pretty clear that neither MD or VA view them as "no big deal" or in a positive light at all.  I wish they would do more to try to catch the people moving them around....