Bow "fishing" (AKA spot lighting)

[Slackdaddy]

Curious on others thoughts on night time Bow "fishing" (Spot lighting)
7-8 years ago Mattawomen creek was a destination we went to catch snakehead and bass from our kayaks.,, on a typ morning my son and I would catch 3-6 nice sized Snakehead each. we would keep 2-3 total.
It took a year for the bow spot lighters to get their night stalker rigs built and on the water. Once the hit the water en mass, the SH all but disappeared there,, if you work at it, you can get "one" or so from a kayak.
When each boat is taking 20-30 large SH, every night, it does not take long to wipe an area out.

https://youtu.be/kARZvU_yfZQ

snakehead.JPG

We turned to Blackwater about 3-4 years ago,, but it turned into a zoo about 2 years ago.

Been hitting the Pax,, but I have recently seen "Night Stalker" boats launching in the evening at 231,,, It's getting rough finding places the spotlighters have not wiped them out.

Think SH will ever become a "Sport" fish with size/creel limits??

[Yak Fish]

Snakehead are becoming the last big fish we can catch. Striped bass were mismanaged. Now snakeheads are completely demonized while other non natives like large mouth that'll eat anything that fits in their mouth are cherished. It's like they don't want us to be able to catch anything. I am completely against fishing with a bow...unless there's some kind of limit. Many of these guys kill for the sake of killing, and I'll never understand that mentality. I fished a formerly productive cove recently and couldn't find a single one. I come to find out a boat with lights is there every night....no wonder. We'll look back at the current times and realize the glory days of snakehead fishing is getting behind us. We'll catch small ones, but the odds of catching trophies goes down. I've been looking for spots that are inaccessible to boats at this point.

[Slackdaddy]

If you watch the video,, it is literally "Shooting fish in a barrel"
And they literally methodically comb an area and shoot every fish. Do they ever stop to wonder "what are we going to do with this 30K boat after we wipe the fish out in a week or 2 ??""
Like Locust, they wipe one area out, then move to the next.
As far as the mentality,, low IQ ?

Yes, the glory days of SH fishing is a few years behind us. For my area it was 4-5 years ago.

Snakehead are becoming the last big fish we can catch. Striped bass were mismanaged. Now snakeheads are completely demonized while other non natives like large mouth that'll eat anything that fits in their mouth are cherished. It's like they don't want us to be able to catch anything. I am completely against fishing with a bow...unless there's some kind of limit. Many of these guys kill for the sake of killing, and I'll never understand that mentality. I fished a formerly productive cove recently and couldn't find a single one. I come to find out a boat with lights is there every night....no wonder. We'll look back at the current times and realize the glory days of snakehead fishing is getting behind us. We'll catch small ones, but the odds of catching trophies goes down. I've been looking for spots that are inaccessible to boats at this point.

[Slackdaddy]

As far as Glory days of Fishing.
For years I never purchased a Maryland fish lic,, all my kayak fishing was in VA, WV, and PA. River fishing chasing small mouth bass.
So many of the waters around me were not worth fishing (Tidal Pax),, I would occasionally get a MD lic, but it was rare.

When the SH showed up, it made the local waters worth fishing,, until the spot lighters wiped them out.
I used to catch 2-4 SH an outing on the western shore, 4-8 on the eastern shore,, it has been many trips ago since catching one on the western shore.

[CHOC]

Easy there, Negative Nathans. Everything goes in cycles. Snakehead are hot right now. If they get overfished, you'll see a reduction in the number of people that fish for them and the population of fish will increase. In the meantime, there are a lot of other species in our local waters to target.

Having said that, bowfishing for snakeheads has been abused. However, maybe the efforts would be better spent creating a coalition to bother the DNR and local leaders enough to turn snakehead into a game fish or try to put regulations on bowfishing for snakehead.

[DanMarino]

I'm not going to watch the video. My son and I bumped several generator boat guys bow hunting for snakeheads 3 or 4 years ago when we got the bright idea to do some night fishing. Those guys in the generator boats are no bueno. Haven't been back to Mattawoman since then.

It would be fun to catch a snakehead on the fly rod eventually.

[Slobber Bob]

I am completely against fishing with a bow...unless there's some kind of limit. Many of these guys kill for the sake of killing, and I'll never understand that mentality.

I pretty much agree with this. But if the bow fishing boats are going to shoot anything, I'd rather see them shoot snakeheads instead of gar, carp, and stingrays. At least they are shooting something they will eat - at least I hope they are eating all of them.


[/QUOTE] I've been looking for spots that are inaccessible to boats at this point.[/QUOTE]

I only fish for them maybe 2 or 3 times a year, but anymore over here on the Shore you need to start getting away from spots easily accessible by other kayaks even.

[nhunter344]

I dont think anyone doubts that snakehead are here to stay, but MD DNR is still in the "reduce environmental impact" phase. There have been more than a few studies that have shown that snakeheads arent the watershed annihilators that they were originally feared to be BUT there is also plenty of evidence that they do adversely affect both the biodiversity and biomass in waters where theyre established (I would say blue catfish do even more damage). As Alan pointed out, a fair number of gamefish in our waters were introduced as well so its not like DNR would be doing something radical in declaring them a gamefish. Then again, putting a limit on them leaves more in the wild to do more damage.

Either way, bowhunting for them (or in general) seems odd to me. From the reports Ive heard, its not like they are discriminate in what they shoot. Its shoot at anything that moves and find out what it is later.

May as well use slightly less skill and drop sticks of tnt over the side of the boat and collect whatever floats to the surface.

[buzz]

The snakeheads are still there. I run into them occasionally. I caught one in Jug Bay back in June. The night stalkers are just keeping the numbers down so they’re not as easy as they used to be.
I’ve seen them come in with 50gal trash cans full. Apparently folks in DC restaurants eat a lot of snakehead and blue cat.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Slackdaddy]

Yes, the snake heads are still "there",, and yes they are not as easy to catch, like one out of every 4-6 half day outings,,

I mean really, why bother with all the lights and all, just shock them up and net them?

If me and 5-6 friends each went to public hunting grounds, went out and spot lighted deer with a 30-06, bagging 20-30 a night EACH,, 4-5 nights a week. And moved on to the next public hunting land when that one was dry, and so on. I could tell the "regular" hunters,, "quit bitching, there is still (some) deer there,, you just have to work harder" wonder how that would go over.

The snakeheads are still there. I run into them occasionally. I caught one in Jug Bay back in June. The night stalkers are just keeping the numbers down so they’re not as easy as they used to be.
I’ve seen them come in with 50gal trash cans full. Apparently folks in DC restaurants eat a lot of snakehead and blue cat.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Slackdaddy]

Sounds logical to me,, Maybe the DNR should lift restrictions on all fish and game/fowl

Unlimited migratory geese, as many as you want,, when the population gets so low that there are none to be found, people will stop hunting them and eventually the population will (may) come back in a few years or decades

Easy there, Negative Nathans. Everything goes in cycles. Snakehead are hot right now. If they get overfished, you'll see a reduction in the number of people that fish for them and the population of fish will increase. In the meantime, there are a lot of other species in our local waters to target.

[buzz]

Yes, the snake heads are still "there",, and yes they are not as easy to catch, like one out of every 4-6 half day outings,,

I mean really, why bother with all the lights and all, just shock them up and net them?

If me and 5-6 friends each went to public hunting grounds, went out and spot lighted deer with a 30-06, bagging 20-30 a night EACH,, 4-5 nights a week. And moved on to the next public hunting land when that one was dry, and so on. I could tell the "regular" hunters,, "quit bitching, there is still (some) deer there,, you just have to work harder" wonder how that would go over.

I don’t make the rules. What they are doing is legal. What you propose is poaching.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Slackdaddy]

Don't take my venting as an attack on anyone in this forum, it is absolutely not,,,
I just happen to live in an area that has poor water quality and did not support much more than Blue cats. For every day I fished here, I would fish 20 days in VA, WV or PA.
When the SH showed up it made these waters worth fishing AND the SH fry gave a food source to the Bass, I just started catching bass here in the last few years.

And as soon as these waters became worth fishing,, They are cleared out by people with no respect for waters, the fish or anyone else.

[buzz]

I understand your frustration. But I don’t think it’s as much about lack of respect as it is about making money.
Restaurants want them and DNR doesn’t.
Personally, I don’t eat anything upstream from St Clements Island.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Slackdaddy]

I typically don't like to "stereotype",, but the few I met over a few years I swear were brothers,, lets just say they had no concept of conservation and no regard for anyone around them.
I C&R 90% of the SH I catch.
What restaurants are paying, they are not even breaking even.
Guides may break even or make a little,, it's about the "Thrill" ,, with no thought that they are putting themselves out of business.

I understand your frustration. But I don’t think it’s as much about lack of respect as it is about making money.
Restaurants want them and DNR doesn’t.
Personally, I don’t eat anything upstream from St Clements Island.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk