Only a matter of time

[Fredrick]

Sorry to hear about the Susky :-o Soon some of you will get the bug just like me . But don’t go running hysterical in the streets after you read this you will make lemonade out of your lemons just like I did .

https://news.maryland.gov/dnr/2019/06/13/northern-snakeheads-caught-in-conowingo-dam-fish-lift/

https://youtu.be/Nu8Onmgsw4c

 

[SteveG]

I just wish I wasn't averse to eating fish from the river. I've heard snakeheads can be good eating.

 

[Susquehanna]

Not something to celebrate

 

[laurelrun]

Much like the spotted lantern fly or even carp and flatheads, I don’t see a scenario where we don’t have further expansion. Given their voracious attitude and supposed strong fight, I would also assume PFBC will eventually lessen efforts to control them like they did with flatheads. Other than catching and killing, which isn’t generally in our nature, what can be done?

 

[sarce]

Fortunately the Susky is big enough that NSH could be targeted in boats by bow fishermen, who have put a major dent in the population in the Potomac. I don't think it's a given that the fish will make it past the dam, though, if they're being killed intentionally when they try passing through the fish ladder.

 

[jifigz]

SteveG wrote:
I just wish I wasn't averse to eating fish from the river. I've heard snakeheads can be good eating.

Why are you averse to eating fish from the river? I'll munch down on some snakeheads for sure.

 

[SteveG]

I guess it's because I see all the runoff from the city that enters it. Granted, it may be a small percentage of the total volume. The only fish I generally eat are saltwater fish. I don't like the taste of trout, and pickerel have eluded me for years.

 

[Fredrick]

SteveG wrote:
I guess it's because I see all the runoff from the city that enters it. Granted, it may be a small percentage of the total volume. The only fish I generally eat are saltwater fish. I don't like the taste of trout, and pickerel have eluded me for years.

From what I'm told the Northern Snakehead doesn't hold contaminates as heavy as other fishes

 

[Fredrick]

Got a report they caught one on the Delaware in Matamoras .

 

[bigjohn58]

Fredrick wrote:
Got a report they caught one on the Delaware in Matamoras .

Wasn't that like a year ago? I thought ya would have heard of more by now from there.

 

[Troy]

Susquehanna wrote:
Not something to celebrate

Exactly. No clue why anyone would be happy about this ugly *** fish spreading into other waters.

 

[Fredrick]

bigjohn58 wrote:

Fredrick wrote:
Got a report they caught one on the Delaware in Matamoras .

Wasn't that like a year ago? I thought ya would have heard of more by now from there.

Oh I just heard about it

 

[poopdeck]

sarce wrote:
Fortunately the Susky is big enough that NSH could be targeted in boats by bow fishermen, who have put a major dent in the population in the Potomac. I don't think it's a given that the fish will make it past the dam, though, if they're being killed intentionally when they try passing through the fish ladder.

It's a given they will pass the fish ladder. Believe it or not, unsporting Beer swilling idiots will be the ones moving them past the dam.

I hear they are good eating but The raccoons will feast on any I catch. The need to attempt to control them is readily apparent and the harvesting of them is what's worked the best so far.

 

[Mike]

Well, they showed up in Bernharts Dam in Berks Co a few years ago, reproduced, and then the dam needed to be drained for dam safety reasons. The outflow goes under Reading and into the Schuylkill R. The dam was 50 miles from any know source. I have not kept up with the dam breaching situation, but I asume that may have been drained by now.

 

[jifigz]

I do wonder how long it will take before these fish are here in my neck of the woods. I know that it is going to happen and I don't believe that there is any stopping it. I dislike the fact that these fish will hang in all of the slack water areas where the redbreasts and smallies will spawn. Flatheads are now showing up in good numbers up here and sizable fish are being caught. The world is a constantly changing place. I bet in 5 years I have snakeheads here which I'll be eating and I'll have lanternflies here which will be trying to eat my grapes.

I still don't think the snakeheads will find the upper Juniata all that suitable, however.

 

[Dave_W]

jifigz wrote:
I still don't think the snakeheads will find the upper Juniata all that suitable, however.

You may be right.

A few years ago I recall some predictions of rapid colonization of the Delaware watershed, well up into the Catskills, by NSH, that would devastate the trout fishing. I don't think there is much evidence for this, at least so far.

I think they will find the backwater creeks of the Chesapeake Bay much more to their liking than moving up shallow rivers like the D and J.

Do we know of any watersheds that are shallow, rocky, and with current, where NSH have set up camp in any kinds of numbers?

 

[sarce]

DW,

Snakeheads *need* weeds and mud and that's where you'll find most of them most of the year. In May they run up into rocky, shallow tributaries of the weedy bodies of water, but from what I can tell, they don't stay there long. However this is how they spread, so they may not stay in a rocky area long but if it allows them to gain access to some new marshy habitat upstream, that could be a problem.

 

[Fredrick]

sarce wrote:
DW,

Snakeheads *need* weeds and mud and that's where you'll find most of them most of the year. In May they run up into rocky, shallow tributaries of the weedy bodies of water, but from what I can tell, they don't stay there long. However this is how they spread, so they may not stay in a rocky area long but if it allows them to gain access to some new marshy habitat upstream, that could be a problem.

They seem to do a migration every spring hence why they always stack up at dams like shad or herring in the spring , I believe its to look for proper spawning grounds.

 

[jifigz]

I will liken snakeheads impact to my area of the Juniata like largemouths. I catch them every year but only in certain places and they don't ever look all that healthy. They really can't hang in the current like the smallies and I think that the snakeheads will be the same. Yes, they will be here, but no, they are definitely not displacing smallmouths.

 

[jifigz]

And Fred, I know that you're a snakeheads freak, but smallies are deftmy favorite. I don't want them to go anywhere but I will welcome snakeheads as well if they fit in. More fish sandwiches for me. :-D