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This past Sunday a few friends and I decided to give Mattawoman creek another go at catching a snakehead. We had taken a trip there this April which resulted in some nice largemouth but none of the target species. Instead of slavins launch we opted for the kayak launch up at the headwaters of the creek. We hadn’t checked tides before leaving so the low water levels when we got there resulted in a bit of dragging over logs and such until we got to deeper water. WOW! What a spot. Not sure if it was the approaching storm front or just the right day but the fishing was on fire. I caught at least a dozen LM bass- several around 4+ lbs and two big catfish. Sometime around early afternoon I hooked into my first snakehead. He slammed the chatterbait, and then proceeded to leap a good 5 feet out of the water, effortlessly throwing my lure out of his mouth, while flipping me the finger. After a good deal of cursing and possibly some tears, I pulled myself together and kept at it. A few more unsuccessful hits, with some nice healthy LM thrown in for good measure-and then finally by late afternoon I managed to pull one out of the water (see photo)
As far as targeting these fish, a couple of things I learned. First, the fish like to hang in the skinniest of water. We heard them splashing around most of the day- often in thick weeds and vegetation right along the bank. You couldn’t imagine a fish even getting into some of these areas much less casting up into there. So my thinking is there are two ways you can go, one is to rig up something ultra weedproof that you can pull through the lillypads and such (like frogs etc.) my only problem in this approach was that I found it difficult to get a good hookset. Lots of hits but few hookups. The other approach is to find pockets of open water close to the edges and throw chatterbaits or other reaction strike lure in as close as possible. This paid off for me on this particular day.
Other things to consider:
Bring a landing net! These fish are extremely tenacious. Just because you’ve hooked one and brought it into the boat don’t expect it to end there. Getting the fish on board has just pissed him off and now he wants to kick your @ss. One friend fishing on Sunday put lots of time into targeting them in the lillypads, finally getting one into the boat, once there, the slimy devil promptly did the alligator roll to get unhooked, got himself under the kayak seat and then somersaulted himself back into the water. I suggest netting the fish-leave the hook in (and hope it doesn’t get caught in the net) then go ahead and hook him into a stringer tied securely to your boat. Then you can unhook the fish and dispatch as required. Expect lots of thrashing around with you getting covered in slime and blood. At some point in all of this I did find myself asking why I chose to target this monster in the first place.
Good luck- hope this helps if you’re looking to wrestle with a snakehead.
-John
As far as targeting these fish, a couple of things I learned. First, the fish like to hang in the skinniest of water. We heard them splashing around most of the day- often in thick weeds and vegetation right along the bank. You couldn’t imagine a fish even getting into some of these areas much less casting up into there. So my thinking is there are two ways you can go, one is to rig up something ultra weedproof that you can pull through the lillypads and such (like frogs etc.) my only problem in this approach was that I found it difficult to get a good hookset. Lots of hits but few hookups. The other approach is to find pockets of open water close to the edges and throw chatterbaits or other reaction strike lure in as close as possible. This paid off for me on this particular day.
Other things to consider:
Bring a landing net! These fish are extremely tenacious. Just because you’ve hooked one and brought it into the boat don’t expect it to end there. Getting the fish on board has just pissed him off and now he wants to kick your @ss. One friend fishing on Sunday put lots of time into targeting them in the lillypads, finally getting one into the boat, once there, the slimy devil promptly did the alligator roll to get unhooked, got himself under the kayak seat and then somersaulted himself back into the water. I suggest netting the fish-leave the hook in (and hope it doesn’t get caught in the net) then go ahead and hook him into a stringer tied securely to your boat. Then you can unhook the fish and dispatch as required. Expect lots of thrashing around with you getting covered in slime and blood. At some point in all of this I did find myself asking why I chose to target this monster in the first place.
Good luck- hope this helps if you’re looking to wrestle with a snakehead.
-John
For the snakeheads, not for me. I am more of a beer guy during the summer.
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