Northern Snakehead fish

[Poquo]

Caught 3 Northern Snakeheads today , trying to help get rid of the invasive fish . 

 

 All fileted ready to grill .

[Skip]

Don't have them up here . Heard they are darn good eaten and put up a good fight . 

[Tacotodd]

Skip, you think it's going to be the next 
largemouth, at least for us/me "southern" boys?

[Poquo]

Caught them on rubber frogs , explosive topwater strikes. Was fishing in the Rappahannock River, don't be surprised if they make it to WV , people are illegal stocking them in other bodies of waters .

[Southside]

Yes they were good eating, Poquo, or "Fish Jeff" as my wife calls him  :D dropped off some of the filets the other day and I threw some on the grill tonight.  Of course to listen to him tell the story about how he caught these the "Big One" got away and is lurking in the bottom of the river, maimed but not out of commission, waiting for Poquo to return at which time Ol Big One will launch himself out of the water and engage in a fight to the death.  :D 

[barbender]

Nasty looking things for sure. Aren't they the fish that can cross a bit of land if the urge strikes them?

[Poquo]

From what I've read about them , they can live out of water for several days and wriggle across land to other bodies of water . In Virginia you are required to kill them as soon as you catch one if you want to keep it to eat . Reason being some people have been taking them to release somewhere else .

[Poquo]

2021 Snakehead fishing went 5 times ended up catching 33 of them. They ranged in size from 4-10.5 pounds. Last year we caught 25 .

 

 

 

[Poquo]

Forgot to add the best picture.

 

[Southside]

And the one Jeff is holding up was some GOOD eating! Blackened it on the grill. 

[Tacotodd]

Ya gotta admit, those are VERY ugly! But beautiful to a fisherman, as are most fish.

[newoodguy78]

Are those related to cusk (have heard them called ling as well)from up north?First time I pulled one through the hole icefishing didn't have a clue what I was dealing with  but was it ever good eating.

[Southside]

Cusk are related to Cod, Snakeheads are from China, but yea - Cusk is an awesome eating fish.  

[Ianab]

Nasty looking things for sure. Aren't they the fish that can cross a bit of land if the urge strikes them?

They have a primitive "lung" that lets them breathe air, so can live up to 4 days out of water if they stay wet, and can cover 1/4 mile across land. One tough fish. But they are seem good eating and fun to catch, so if life gives you invasive fish, may as well have a fry up.:D

They are on our "forbidden to import" list, for good reason. 

All we have is Koi carp, that aren't worth eating. People hunt them with bow and arrow, just for sport, with the blessing of the Conservation and Ag/Fish Departments. Only rule is if you are found with one, it better be dead. But they are only really good for cat food. 

[Tacotodd]

In my state of AR you can only bowhunt scaled rough fish: carp & gar. Catfish are rough fish but not scaled, so your goldfish quality for some fun BFing! I used to BF every chance that I could but haven't done so in years. I'm so bad out of practice that it'd be like starting all over, but it'd still be fun! Ian, you just brought back some good memories to me , and I thank you for that  I miss those days!