Snakehead on Live Minnows?

[Financeguru]

I've been trying to land a snakehead for awhile now but it's been an elusive pursuit thus far. I had one on the line at Ft. Belvoir but it shook the hook off a crankbait. I had one tear off the trailing legs of a chatterbait at Roaches Run but no hook up.

I was thinking about live lining a minnow with a bobber along grass beds and the edges of vegetation but wanted to know your thoughts about this presentation for snakeheads. Everything I've read about snakeheads has been artificial lures (top water frogs, chatterbait, rattle traps, some plastics, etc).

Your thoughts?

Thanks.

[Memory Maker]

....... well ........ their profile says their primary diet is bull minnows so why not? might be good to cast a big bull minnow into pockets with a weedless hook and heavy line.

[jhoss]

That should work although you are likely to catch a lot of other stuff too....everything likes minnows. I've heard that in countries where the snakehead are prevalent they use live frogs, hooked in the nose and tied to a line in a spot where there is an overhanging tree branch.

Snakehead are tricky to hook well. They tend to barely grab stuff in their mouth rather than swallow. I lost one yesterday by reeling too eagerly, rather than giving the fish some time to play itself out.

[Romo]

I've never fished for snakeheads in VA but - In Jersey and PA where I fish you're generally gonna do best fishing for snakeheads in heavy cover. They're just not normally an open water fish, although you will find some cruising in lanes between weeds or pockets of open water deep in the weeds. You can't exactly throw a minnow under a bobber deep into heavy cover so I don't think live bait is a great way to go. Have you ever fished frogs for bass? Just do the same thing only use the smallest frog you can find. I like the smallest lunkerhunt pocket frogs best myself. Find heavy cover, preferably spatterdock mixed in with any other slimy weeds, and cast away. Eventually you will get one. You can try to fish minnows on the edges of the weeds but I think you'd probably catch more bass and generally just have a bad time clearing weeds off your line every cast.