The Monster Northern Snakehead Arrives
Several years ago when the monster Northern Snakehead invaded the waters of Maryland, an all out war was raised to kill them all. Well, that didn’t work. Today, Northern Snakeheads swim the Potomac River shoulder to shoulder with the other predator of the deep, Largemouth Bass.
Since the arrival of the Northern Snakehead to our local waters, some fishermen have embraced their arrival and the snakehead fishermen was born. They are exciting to catch with their topwater explosions and their prefered habitat makes them a prime quarry for the canoe or kayak fishermen.
Oh yea, another added bonus is they are great to eat, and taking a few home for dinner is sure to please the home front.
But as a fishermen, aren’t I supposed to kill any and all of the Snakeheads I catch ?
Nope, and with the help of a friend Joe Bruce, I got to the bottom of this outdated misconception.
The Maryland 2015 regulations for Northern Snakeheads :
It is against Maryland, Virginia, and federal laws to possess, import, or transport live northern snakehead.
If you catch a snakehead and want to keep it, you must immediately kill the fish by removing its head, gutting it or removing its gill arches. The capture and possession of dead snakeheads is not subject to any season, creel limit or size limit.
Read into the regulation, “want to keep it”. It is perfectly legal to release a Northern Snakehead back into the water after catching one.
The Virginia Requirements:
VDGIF has established a snakehead hotline that anglers can use to report snakehead fish (804-367-2925). There is also a web application for reporting observations which can be found here: http://dgif-virginia.maps.arcgis.com/home/index.html. Anglers are not required to report snakeheads nor are they required to kill them if caught, but the Department asks that the fish be reported and killed if possible. However, if an angler wishes to keep a legally caught northern snakehead, the fish must be killed to be in possession, and the angler must call the hotline and report the angler’s last name, date of catch, location of catch and size. Kill the fish by:
- removing the head,
- separating the gill arches from the body, or
- removing the internal organs and put it on ice as quickly as possible.
My quick thoughts on Northen Snakeheads
Snakeheads are here and I don’t see them leaving anytime soon. I’ve pursued them in earnest for three seasons now and most days catch them and largemouth intermixed throughout the same habitat. I remember the day they were first caught in that pond in Crofton, MD and the doomsday terror that soon followed. It didn’t happen. The Northern Snakehead has not eaten every living thing in our rivers and appears to have found a home right along with the bass. Big bass eat small snakeheads and big snakeheads eat small largemouth. So, it all evens out I guess. They’re fun to catch and eat, which sounds good to me. So, I’ll keep on, keeping one for dinner and tossing the others back to live another day.
If you want to try your hand at catching a few snakeheads, I would suggest getting a copy of Joe’s book. He’s put in more time than anybody I know fishing for Snakeheads.
