Snakeheads

[jsquare]

Hey all,
All this talk of snakeheads has left me with a strange urge to try and catch one on the Mattawoman. It's a decent drive for me (~1hr 20mins) and I'd hate to get there and find mocha colored water and poor fishing conditions.

Anybody with experience on this body of water know what the conditions will be like in the near future? Any comments and ideas about the conditions and fishability of the Mattawoman would be much appreciated. I'm not much of a freshwater fisherman, but I'd love to take a shot at one of those potomac pike.

Thanks, John

[ronaultmtd]

Hey all,
All this talk of snakeheads has left me with a strange urge to try and catch one on the Mattawoman. It's a decent drive for me (~1hr 20mins) and I'd hate to get there and find mocha colored water and poor fishing conditions.

Anybody with experience on this body of water know what the conditions will be like in the near future? Any comments and ideas about the conditions and fishability of the Mattawoman would be much appreciated. I'm not much of a freshwater fisherman, but I'd love to take a shot at one of those potomac pike.

Thanks, John

As a frustrated snakehead hunter, I have hooked and lost them every way you can on the Mattawoman creek. The last time I went after hurricane Irene, it was high water, but clear. I caught several nice bass but didn't have a hit from snakeheads. The best bait is top water frogs, and plastics...although they have been caught on chatter baits, Mann's minus 1, senko's, buzz baits, plastic worms, money frogs, spro's frog, and rapala hard baits.

[jsquare]

Cool. Thank you.
And thanks for the list of lures. I picked up some basic shallow water bass fishing stuff at bass pro. I now have an assortment of fluke type baits, wake baits, and a buzz bait. Also watched some informative videos on youtube, posted by a couple of generous local yakers.

One of the coolest baits I picked up (out of curiosity, really) is the rage tail shad and toad. I took these to Rocky Gorge and chucked them around and they look fantastic in the water. Can't wait to try them!

Someday soon I'll test my mettle on the Mattawoman.

[tufnik]

Agree. It can be frustrating trying to catch them. I too have been skunked at Mattawoman. One of these days I'll try again.

I use the Money Frog. Good action, but no catches yet. Don't know about the water conditions there. If you go, let us know what it's like.

[kanvery]

Rage tail is all you need....

[ronaultmtd]

The very first trip to Mattawoman I hooked a monster snakehead on the Real target Frog- it was about three feet long and as thick as my biceps- wrapped me around three lilly pads and a ton of weeds- since then I have caught several big bass on the Real Target frogs and had some blowups from snakeheads that are awe inspiring- like dropping a volkswagen in from space- but no snakes in the boat-

[jsquare]

Yeah, I've seen those frogs as well. All the bass guys use big, heavy power rods and something like 65 lb test power pro with them because of the slop they fish them through.