2013: Sudden boom in northern snakehead catches - Delaware River

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Mike

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If you wish to try your hand at catching northern snakeheads on a fly, they are particularly aggressive when spawning. They are an invasive species now getting a foot-hold in the Delaware. They are nest guarders and fairly easily caught from the nests, which appear in shallow, weedy or not-so-weedy back-waters, calm pools in braided channels, etc, at least that is what we know so far. They have been caught from the Delaware with surprising regularity from Scudders Falls area (I-95 crossing) downstream to about 10 miles below Trenton NJ/Morrisville PA area this year. Morrisville has been particularly productive. Additionally, some scattered catches have come from Tohickon Creek, Bucks Co, about a mile upstream from its mouth at Point Pleasant on the Delaware, and from the Delaware River on the NJ side across from Martins Creek, Northampton Co, which is north of Easton, Pa. So, as you search for smallmouth you may run into snakeheads as you wade through back-water areas behind islands or shallow, dead water areas near shore. Note, that you should know the difference between bowfins and snakeheads before deciding to kill a snakehead, as the bowfin is a native species that is a candidate for threatened or endangered status in Pa. The PFBC will soon be coming out with a very good poster that explains the differences among similar species so that anglers will be able to readily separate snakeheads from the rest. Meanwhile, you can find a similar description on Virginia's fisheries agency's web site. Snakeheads may not be possessed alive in Pa, so either release them or kill them right away. By all accounts, they are good eating. Additionally, there has been a bow fishery developing on the Delaware that is including snakeheads as one of the target species.
 
Ok, who's going to organize a "snakehead jam"? I'm in.
 
My gosh. I wasn't aware they were in the Delaware. How long ago was this documented? I thought they were limited to a couple ponds in PA.

I realize the snakeheads have some fans in the Potomac River but, in that waterway, their upward migration is blocked by the Great Falls.

This is not good news. :-(
 
Maybe the flatheads will eat them. I've seen some monster flatheads caught in Northampton Co.
 
Well if they are in the Delaware, they are in the Lehigh.
 
How aggressively do they guard their nests from humans? If I waded by a nest would it bite me? When do they spawn? I don't fish the Delaware that often, but when I do its between 95 and rt 1 usually. Sounds like the epicenter.
 
The poster metioned above will be distributed along streams, lakes, and rivers where burbot, bowfins, or snakeheads are present over the next few weeks in an effort to educate anglers about the identifying characteristics of each species. This is important, given that burbot (inland population listed as endangered) and bowfins (candidate species for threatened or endangered) have been misidentified as being snakeheads. This is an attempt to prevent mortality of these two species when well-meaning anglers are removing what they think are snakeheads and unwittingly kill the wrong fish species. Blacknose dace, darters, and eels have also been reported by anglers as being snakeheads, so it is clear that an informational campaign regarding proper identification is necessary.



 
There are documentation that they will attack humans in order to protect their young. So all of us who wade in these waters best be more on the alert.
 
Northern snakehead Q & A sheet: http://fishwild.vt.edu/snakeheads/Facts.html#02
 
One day, all we're gonna catch are asian carp, snakeheads, and musky, maybe musky if the the snakeheads don't eat all the juveniles, lol.

Wonder if they will be treated like sea lamprey http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7240.html
 
So Jeremy Wade from "Monster Fish" was incorrect? Interesting...

Straight from the link: "I’m hesitant to say definitively that there is no danger of a snakehead biting a human."

OK, So who wants to be the first flyer to test the thoery?

I guess we don't need another "JAWS" episode where millions of fisherman killed millions of sharks...

 
maybe they should put sea lamprey in to take out the snakeheads...maybe they'll take each other out.

sea lampreys will definitely go for your legs. i've seen the sucker marks. ewww.
 
the Delaware has had sea lamprey for eons.. we used to spear and net them during shad runs.
 
just poison them and get rid of them.
 
or net them and give them free to Chinese restaurants - which is how they got there...as offerings the chinese release potential food like snakeheads, toads etc to appease their ancestors.

 
Im in on the jam, none that i know of in the upper Big D, i keep waiting to catch one.
 
kmmichael51 wrote:
Im in on the jam, none that i know of in the upper Big D, i keep waiting to catch one.



I'm in.
 
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