Where have you caught snakeheads before?

[DanMarino]

I'm curious to hear what bodies of water everyone has caught snakeheads in. I've only caught them down at Mattawoman Creek years ago, but I understand they have migrated around since then.

I would love to be able to catch some snakeheads in Central Maryland instead of driving an hour or more away from home to get to them.

[Mark]

Tom,

They are in the creeks of the Magothy, Severn and Patapsco.

That doesn't mean they are easy to catch. They remain elusive, sometimes moody ignoring our offerings and often hard to hook even when they bite. But they are definitely in the tidal creeks of the rivers I mentioned above. In fact, my son caught one in the Magothy last month, on the fly, no less.

I boated none this year. I did in 2020. This year I had only strikes. I thought SH catch reports on SL would soar this year. But again, they are not easy to catch on lures and flies. Perhaps bait anglers do better. Also, I think some folks remain reluctant to say where they caught them because they want to keep their location a secret. However, they are well dispersed far beyond Mattawoman and Blackwater. They have found their niche in our waters and they are here to stay.

[Red_Beard]

Snakehead can now be found in pretty much every tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. They are in all of the western shore tributary rivers in Maryland up to the Susquehanna Flats, and most of the Virginia tributaries as well that I am aware. I suspect they are in all of the eastern shore tributaries as well. They have even spread through the Back Creek canal out to the Delaware River, and people are catching them in New Jersey as a result. They can be caught in most all of the Potomac River creeks as far down as the Coles Point area, and all the way up to Great Falls. They are pretty abundant in the Rappahanock River around Port Royal, and can probably be caught down to at least Tappahanock. They have been illegally introduced into many lakes and millponds. I know of catches in Rocky Gorge, the Baltimore reservoirs, and Tuckahoe Millpond at least. They are also in Lake Burke in Virginia. Long story short, there are plenty of places for you to try catching them.

[dsaavedra]

In addition to the places Cliff and Mark mentioned, the middle/upper reaches of the Patuxent sport healthy populations of snakeheads. The river floods with enough frequency that it's a safe bet any ponds on the floodplain likely have snakehead too.

[gliebig]

Tons in Blackwater. Have caught a bunch locally around Middle River. Hard part around here is finding a place where the spotlighters haven't burned them up.

[Mark]

One more thing...

Hardly a warm weather outing passes for me in a Patpasco Creek or a Magothy Creek, not so much in the Severn, when a homeowner on their dock doesn't ask me if I've caught a snakehead. We chat and homeowners proceed to tell me that they see them often swimming near their docks or that they have caught them while casting from their docks. I do believe snakeheads have adapted to the open waters of our tidal creeks and that they are not always found in extremely weedy areas like Mattawoman, for example.

[DanMarino]

I was wondering if snakeheads have made it to Rocky Gorge, Triadelphia, Liberty, Prettyboy, or Loch Raven reservoirs yet. I've heard about them in the C&O Canal as well.

[Mark]

I attended a Trout Unlimited meeting via Zoom last year. The speaker from the MD DNR mentioned that SHs had been caught in Pretty Boy Reservoir. Of course, that alarmed the trout enthusiasts who fish the upper Gunpowder. Indeed SHs are in the tidal portions of the lower Gunpowder. Having fished the upper portions of the Gunpowder myself, I doubt SHs would thrive in that cool fast water. But who knows for sure? They've expanded their range to areas we never thought they would be. For example, they have been caught by watermen setting their crab traps in shallow water near the Bay Bridge.

[Red_Beard]

Speaking of the Gunpowder, I did spot a snakehead once while smallmouth fishing below Loch Raven near the Route 1 bridge. It wasn't a big one, but it was definitely a snakehead. Also, on a recent trip striper fishing on Patapsco, I overhead several people in one marina talking about snakeheads, and when I returned to Fort Smallwood I found a massive snakehead had been dumped by a trash can in the parking lot.

snakehead.jpg

[dsaavedra]

That's a huge one... someone missed out on several good meals by dumping that fish.

[Oldbayrunner]

snakehead.jpg Chester River & Bush River..... They are also in the Susquehanna.

[bignose]

Two summers ago, I witnessed a snakehead being caught below Daniel's Dam on the Patapsco, which is way above tidewater.

There are videos on YouTube showing them being caught behind Savage Mill, in Laurel, from the Patuxent.

[FishnFun]

Are they still active and biting during winter?

[dsaavedra]

Are they still active and biting during winter?

They slow way down and move out of the shallow cover in search of deeper, warmer water. A live minnow under a bobber out in the "channel" areas (I use quote because in much of the snakehead habitat particularly on the eastern shore the channel is very slight, maybe just a foot or two deeper than surroundings) is about your only shot at them during the winter. A few warm days in a row might get them slightly more active but you'll still want to be putting live minnows right in front of their faces. People catch them in the winter but you get more for your money targeting other species during the cold months.

[admwndsr83]

Tons in Blackwater. Have caught a bunch locally around Middle River. Hard part around here is finding a place where the spotlighters haven't burned them up.

Mine have came mainly from Middle River as well, namely Bird River and Wilson Pt. State Park Area, although Dundee Creek is also a go-to for me.