First snakehead of 2022

[dsaavedra]

Usually I don't start fishing for snakehead until April but with the warm and sunny weather we've been having I wanted to see if they were starting to wake up.

I started the day fishing a little deeper (4 feet or so?) among the emerging lily pad stems - in just a couple weeks they will be above water. No bites out there on a variety of lures, even on live minnows. After about 5 hours without a bite I decided to change things up and try shallow. I caught a pair of really nice 13"+ crappie and a largemouth pushing 3 pounds on live minnows in about 1.5 feet but still no snakes. The sun had been shining all day long and the air temps were comfortably in the mid 70's so I decided to go even shallower. Sure enough I found my first snakehead of the year holding tight to cover in about 8 inches of water, he was fooled by a 3" paddle tail:

20220319_143945.jpg

Sticking to this pattern landed me 3 more snakeheads in the same little cove over the next 45 minutes or so, with the highlight being this very fat 5 lb 8 oz specimen:

20220319_151857.jpg

The wind was howling which limited where I could effectively fish, but I tried one more cove without any luck, though I did spook a few up shallow. By this time it was getting late and I had a long drive home so I called it a day. What was shaping up to be a skunk trip was redeemed with the help of some warm afternoon sun and following a hunch. I finished the day with 4 snakeheads, 2 crappie, 1 bass, and 1 catfish.

[Mark]

Dave,

I'd say the snakeheads are definitely awake!

Good for you.

Nice outing.

By the way, a friend of mine in NC shared this article about snakeheads with me yesterday:

https://phys.org/news/2022-03-rare-t...snakehead.html

Our snakeheads may be one of only a few fish species that actually feed their young. The above article is short and an interesting read.

A quote from article:

"This behavior might have enabled the fish to conquer new environments..."

[gliebig]

I'd say that was a good day!

[dsaavedra]

Dave,

I'd say the snakeheads are definitely awake!

Good for you.

Nice outing.

By the way, a friend of mine in NC shared this article about snakeheads with me yesterday:

https://phys.org/news/2022-03-rare-t...snakehead.html

Our snakeheads may be one of only a few fish species that actually feed their young. The above article is short and an interesting read.

A quote from article:

"This behavior might have enabled the fish to conquer new environments..."

Interesting article, thanks for sharing. I read the peer-reviewed paper which is linked at the bottom of the page you shared, and it appears that the extent to which feeding of trophic eggs is documented is limited to a sub-group of small mouthbrooding snakeheads. Larger species of snakheheads like the northern snakeheads we have in the Chesapeake are nestbrooders and probably don't exhibit this behavior. It's still fascinating when new discoveries like this happen every year - it's so easy to think we have it all figured out when in reality there is so much about the natural world we don't know.

I have heard that the northern snakeheads in our area spawn multiple times throughout the season though, which no-doubt plays a role in their ability to thrive and grow their populations so quickly. While I have seen snakehad fry, I have never actually observed snakeheads spawning, nor guarding their "fry ball" for that matter, but I'd sure like to. That's one of the few times you can elicit a very aggressive strike using obnoxious lures like buzzbaits - much of the rest of the time it is a finesse game from my experience.

[Jman]

Way to persevere! That’s a great day. I didn’t get a chance to fish over the weekend, but did some scouting and saw one on the west side hanging shallow, similar to what you saw.

[Conquesthunter]

Good job....congrats. I wanna check out a spot in Southern Maryland this year, rode past it a few times doing work down there, looks really good. Had a place on the shore, but you have to camp out two days in advance to get a parking spot.

[dsaavedra]

Had a place on the shore, but you have to camp out two days in advance to get a parking spot.

Aint that the truth... and the counties aren't making it any easier by putting up "No Parking" signs or "Trailer Parking Only" signs all over the already tiny parking areas. Good luck in SOMD, let us know how you do.

[Red_Beard]

"Trailer Parking Only." All the more reason to start trailering my kayak instead of cartopping.

[ILV2F5H]

Nicely done and thanks for sharing.