Way Delayed Occoquan Report - Snake Heads

[tj06sti]

Kept putting off this post and then forgot to make it eventually! I hit the Occoquan back in may fishing for crappie and didn't catch any of them, but did manage to catch a small striper, sunfish and several bass. Cut up the sunfish and used that to catch a decent sized Channel cat for some nice pullage. Then I went up to the rocks at the end of day and saw some guys anchored up throwing a rattle trap and rapala for striper. They showed me a 2 foot snake head they caught and we eventually ended up with them giving me the fish since they didn't want to eat it and I wanted to try the meat after hearing all the hype. I of course proceeded to throw a rattle trap for half hour hoping to get into something similiar. I then hear lots of comotion behind me and I see the other guy has hooked into something massive. They eventually land it and its a 32" snakehead, an obsolute beast. They cut their throats to kill em since they did not have a club, and they were full of eggs. I gave that super sized one to a Vietnamese gentleman who said he had not seen a snakehead in over 20 years, which I thought was cool.

The snakehead was a PITA to clean, but the meat was awesome. It was white and firm and very tasty after frying with the Abbots and Italian dressing.

[mmanolis2001]

Very nice. The pic of that last snakehead was a beast. Are the snakehead bony like a pike? What was causing issues while cleaning?

[tj06sti]

I am no where near an expert at fileting fish, I am used to slicing in just behind the front pectoral fin first, then cutting back and letting the knife ride along the backbone. If I am remembering what threw me off, I would swear it was that its backbone was in the middle of it, rather then at the top, so I couldn't just filet like I am used to.. The skin and scales are also super tough, and he has that large hard area that big stripers have behind the pectorals.. Hope that makes sense. :P

[ictalurus]

I've been wondering what you've been up to. Glad to hear the report.

That's a nice variety of species. How big was that sunfish? It looks really fat for its size, and I'm having a hard time with the species id. Now I'm really stoked to try eating snakehead. I was having some doubts because salmo trutta on tidalfish said it was awful. I don't think he's a seafood lover, though.

[mmanolis2001]

Looks like a warmouth or maybe some bluegill/Redeye abomination.

[tj06sti]

Hi Bill, the sunfish was about hand sized, so maybe 5" or so? I couldn't figure out what it was that night either after I went home and googled for a bit. The big black pupil threw me off!

[jet]

snake heads creep me out for some reason

[Pinch]

..

snake heads creep me out for some reason

me too.. doesnt really seem like it should be a fish..

[jffoley]

Hey TJ, Good to hear from you! Your JBay Captain's bag still awaits! On the snakehead, to my nose the ones I've caught stink! Bad. I didn't want to mess with cleaning them. Very slimy, too. Did you find this as well?

For those interested (or creeped out) take a look at this pic. It's a 20"er I caught a week or so ago at Leesylvainia SP. Look closely at the scales. It really does look more reptilian than a fish! They got a real hard head too. Was out at Pohick Bay on Thursday and spotted a monster. Easily 30+". A beast looking at me from under the spatterdock. Talk about creeped out!