Mattawoman 4/28/12

[DanMarino]

[HJS]

Dang... that's a very nice looking snakehead indeed! Need more detail. What did he hit??? And did you see any more in the area coming to the surface? Unfortunately for me, Mattawoman is just out of my range from northern Frederick County for a day trip.

Did you take it home to eat?

[DanMarino]

Details

Unfortunately, my son got skunked so he's holding the snakehead I caught.

We were fishing with a group of kayakers from another fishing forum. Things were kinda slow and then around noon something must have changed with the tide. We saw the lilly pads begin to move and shake with actively feeding fish. Within about 20 minutes the group had hookups with 4 snakeheads and a couple of bass.

I caught 2 small bass on a nose hooked 4 inch yum dinger worm.

I switched to my reliable fish catching search bait (a beetlespin with a 1/8 ounce jig head and a green pumpkin curly tail grub).

I first caught a 19 inch largemouth and within 5 or 6 casts caught this 25 inch snakehead. The snakehead weighted 5 pounds 3 ounces.

It is in the cooler. I'm going to fillet it today and perhaps grill it this evening.

Tom

[kanvery]

Tom make sure you measure that thing! You might have the MKF kayak record!

[CB kayak 02]

Tom make sure you measure that thing! You might have the MKF kayak record!

WE'll take your word for it!! congrats on the fish!! Is the KBF group heading back down to the Potomac tributaries again next weekend? I would like to try and make it.

[chex]

Nice!! That's awesome.

[tufnik]

Nice snake. I gotta get one soon.

[DanMarino]

Snakeheads are incredible.

Thanks Guys.

Snakeheads are incredible and Mattawoman is a neat place. I've never really fished a tidal creek before, so it is all new to me. The snakeheads didn't seem very picky to me yesterday. They seemed to prefer spinnerbaits, although one guy caught one snakehead on a tube rigged with a worm hook and no weight.

They are awesome fish and very creepy. Every single snakehead that was caught had their gills cut to kill them and the fish were still alive and moving hours later. Very bizarre and a little sad. We need to figure out a more humane way to kill them.

Jeff Little caught a MONSTER that he says was well over 40 inches and bigger and heavier than any musky he's ever seen caught. With the fish's gills cut with garden shears, the fish thrashed and broke his plastic fish gripper and flopped out of the kayak and down back into the creek. It never showed itself again. Crazy-monster fish.

I love fishing for smallmouth bass, but snakeheads sure are fun. I will make snakehead fishing a regular part of my fishing from now on.

Tom

[new2yaks11]

Nice snakehead. Looks like I better head down to the Potomac soon if I hope to land my first snakehead. I cannot wait to see one explode on my lure. Hope the weather cooperates this week and I plan to head down next weekend.

[DanMarino]

Tastes Great Too.

We ate half of the snakehead tonight and it was fantastic. Wrapped it in tinfoil, a little butter, a little salt, and grilled it for about 10 minutes. It was just as good as any fish I've ever tasted.

13

[ictalurus]

Outstanding! Congrats on the nice fish. Did the snakehead wreck the beetlespin? It's funny to think about catching two fish like that on a perch lure.

Too bad Jeff's fish got away. I'd like to see a monster like that. Is he expanding his guide service to the tidal Potomac? He guided my father and I several years ago down the Rapp and mentioned he wanted to branch out to some tidal waters.

[DanMarino]

Beetlespin

The beetlespin arm was totally fine. The 1/8 ounce jig that I had clipped onto it had a slightly bent hook. But all in all, it wasn't mangled much at all. I think the jig head being able to pivot on the spinner arm kept it from getting bent up so badly. The other guys who caught snakeheads on the spinnerbaits had to basically stop using the baits. Jeff Little's spinner bait even had one of the willow blades torn off of it.

They are doing a snakehead raid next Saturday morning at Mattawoman. I think most guys are launching by the bridge that crosses over the creek way up stream. I won't be able to make it, unfortunately. But my son is ready to head back, so we will get back there soon.

One of the snakeheads was killed and gutted while on the water and it was a female with a ton of eggs. So I guess they have not spawned yet.

[daddyg]

Nice I can't wait to try snakehead...

[ronaultmtd]

I launched Sunday at 4 p.m. at Slavins- fished my way up the creek to the barge- caught fish after fish after fish- boring- boring to catch fish on just about every cast-two white perch 10-12 inches, 14 bass up to 19 inches, two blue cats up to 24 inches, five crappie, and one big ass snakehead about 30 inches- all on uL spinning tackle and most on the fire tiger rapala- I lost as many as I caught due to the tiny hooks on the Rapala- I had my hands on the snakehead but it went crazy as I was landing it and jumped out of the kayak- I'm calling that a catch and release- damn it!

My old digital waterproof camera is toast-the battery won't hold a charge- took one picture and then the damn thing started acting up- the screen would not stay on- and I don't know if it took pictures or not- I should have had the GoPro hooked up-

[ronaultmtd]

Oh, yeah- when the snakehead went crazy- it stuck the rapala hooks deep in the ham of my right hand- I had all I wanted right about then- Thank God I had a hemostat hook remover and side cutters in the boat-

Fish got even with me-

One tip- I don't think the plastic lip gripper is the best tool for landing snakeheads- unless you use a baseball bat to subdue them- next trip I will use my old Boga metal gripper-

OK- archeryrob just posted about retrieve, what you used, etc. I was tossing the Rapala up in the breaks between lilly pads in two feet of water- letting it sit until all the ripples died- then twitch, twitch and let it sit as a top water lure- caught two really nice bass that way- big blowups like a VW thrown in the water- exciting hits- but 99% of the fish hit the lure on a fairly slow retrieve I used to keep it from snagging in the weed bed- about a foot or so deep- around the barge- I caught crappie after crappie out in front- I got the snakehead down the center of the barge- a long cast up a narrow channel between the two wrecks- an couple of turns on the handle of the reel and bam- hit like a ton of bricks- It took line like a really fast fish- and it was very strong fish- took a long time to move it to the boat and it never quit fighting-