Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Snakehead hunting June 22, 2010

I had a couple hours free yesterday evening so I went in search of snakeheads at my hidden urban stomping grounds on a tributary to the Potomac in DC. It’s been over a month since I’ve been to this one pool. Back in April I scared myself with the number of snakeheads that were in there. Not to mention the size which was something I’ve never seen anywhere, in any pictures from the southern variety to the northern variety. Matter of fact I’m quite certain after some research that this creek held the world record snakehead at one time.

Anyway, I had a phone conversation with DC fisheries back in April alerting them to the alarming number of NSH in the fast water eddies around chain bridge back in April/May. They were well aware of their presence. They confirmed that the fish are there at higher flows but during lower summer flows they retreat and spread out all over the river but mostly taking up residence in the shallow back water bays for the summer. That is similar to what I’ve found in the creek too. I didn’t spot a single fish at first from high ground. After casting around some and missing three nice strikes on top water, I confirmed there were still a few around. Plus I clearly saw a small one, ~20” come up for air. There are quite a few bass around too so I’m not really sure what missed my smack it shorty. They could have been bass, could have been snakehead. I even brought the fly rod to quickly catch a few bluegill and live line them but they didn’t even get touched. Last time I did that I missed a really nice snakehead there and caught quite a few bass. This time I didn’t have a bobber to float the bluegill off the bottom and he just swam straight for the rocks. Plus there’s a snapping turtle in there large enough to take more than a few toes so I think he could have taken my rig.

Oh well, top water action in the middle of urban sprawl will suffice for now. My hunt for a snakehead continues. I guess I need to put a GPS tracker on Thai.  Either that or just move down to the lower river and fish the grass.  Yesterday I just had to see if those snakeheads would show themselves like they did one April afternoon where I had 4 or five just laying there in two feet of water oblivious to me standing directly above them.  Maybe I've educated them now.  Who knows.