Northern Snakeheads

[kennyp2339]

Anyone have any luck catching these? I know there invasive to our area but I've been seeing videos of these fish giving great fights and lots of catch and cook blogs. I'm curious about these, so far I've only heard great things regarding how well the meat tastes.

[martalus]

Man, I hope they haven't found their way to Northwest Jersey, aka trout country. I know they have become quite common in DC/Maryland as well in and around Philadelphia and south Jersey. I don't know what their tolerance for cold water is. I am told they taste very good-in most jurisdictions you are required to kill them. Vietnamese folks in particular really seem to target them to catch and cook-many have told me they are really tasty-people target them with big treble hooks and snag them when come up to the surface-i am not sure if they actually can breathe air, but that is what they appear to be doing.

[Rusty Spinner]

Man, I hope they haven't found their way to Northwest Jersey, aka trout country. I know they have become quite common in DC/Maryland as well in and around Philadelphia and south Jersey. I don't know what their tolerance for cold water is. I am told they taste very good-in most jurisdictions you are required to kill them. Vietnamese folks in particular really seem to target them to catch and cook-many have told me they are really tasty-people target them with big treble hooks and snag them when come up to the surface-i am not sure if they actually can breathe air, but that is what they appear to be doing.

Cold water is an impediment to their spread, thankfully. But they are in the Delaware River and can enter trout streams in summer months when trout waters aren't very cold in our state. Too many anglers are targeting them for their fight and tossing them back in. They need to be killed.

[martalus]

Man, I hope they haven't found their way to Northwest Jersey, aka trout country. I know they have become quite common in DC/Maryland as well in and around Philadelphia and south Jersey. I don't know what their tolerance for cold water is. I am told they taste very good-in most jurisdictions you are required to kill them. Vietnamese folks in particular really seem to target them to catch and cook-many have told me they are really tasty-people target them with big treble hooks and snag them when come up to the surface-i am not sure if they actually can breathe air, but that is what they appear to be doing.

Cold water is an impediment to their spread, thankfully. But they are in the Delaware River and can enter trout streams in summer months when trout waters aren't very cold in our state. Too many anglers are targeting them for their fight and tossing them back in. They need to be killed.

Yeah, I just don't understand the excitement in targeting them for sport and letting them live. NJ has just about every species under sun, including toothy critters like Musky, pike, and pickerel that can blow up surface lures, not to mention all manner of salt water, anadromous, cold water, and warm water species.

[Rusty Spinner]

Man, I hope they haven't found their way to Northwest Jersey, aka trout country. I know they have become quite common in DC/Maryland as well in and around Philadelphia and south Jersey. I don't know what their tolerance for cold water is. I am told they taste very good-in most jurisdictions you are required to kill them. Vietnamese folks in particular really seem to target them to catch and cook-many have told me they are really tasty-people target them with big treble hooks and snag them when come up to the surface-i am not sure if they actually can breathe air, but that is what they appear to be doing.

Cold water is an impediment to their spread, thankfully. But they are in the Delaware River and can enter trout streams in summer months when trout waters aren't very cold in our state. Too many anglers are targeting them for their fight and tossing them back in. They need to be killed.

Yeah, I just don't understand the excitement in targeting them for sport and letting them live. NJ has just about every species under sun, including toothy critters like Musky, pike, and pickerel that can blow up surface lures, not to mention all manner of salt water, anadromous, cold water, and warm water species.

The average angler has just about zero idea which species of fish they fish for are native and which of the non-natives that cause so many issues to natives. Sad but true.

[lightenup]

This is down south in Rancocas creek. People are doing the right thing and killing them.

20211203_114928.jpg (2.87 MiB) Viewed 10632 times

[coaltrout]

I targeted them in deep south jersey, if i ever found one anywhere i normally fish I would kill them.
But the times i went out to specifically target the species; I had no intention in killing them.
This was in sloppy overgrown swamp water.
We were catching dink young bass in the mix.
Killing any in this swamp water wouldnt change anything other than kill off a few prized snakeheads another angler or young kid and his dad (which I saw fishing together here) would travel down south for. Which no one, especially me, has no reason to even be traveling down this south to begin with. before hand, I never traveled farther south than the millstone river for any fishing. A bunch of guys in North Jersey are doing the same; they are interested in catching one and exploring a new fishery. I wouldnt be surprised if some people from NY/NYC have done the same.
One could say the snakeheads down south actually attracting a sort of tourism down here. Or at least it could be if the fishery took off and became something.

The game warden we met at the end of the day didnt ask if we killed the ones we caught.

Going any more north is debatable, and I would side on killing any where theres any trace of a significance of a trout, smallmouth, pike fishery, etc etc. (sorry, couldnt care about largemouth lol)
That includes the lower delaware river.

But for this swamp water in the middle of nowhere deep south in NJ i dont see why i would kill the only targetable species in that entire watershed.

I really think they should make an exception for a select few waters where they clearly are already established and are the clear target species. mark it something creative like "Division of F&W are monitoring the snakehead population here to research the effects on other game species and their status as an invasive species" or something like that and have them Catch-and-releaseable.

[lightenup]

I targeted them in deep south jersey, if i ever found one anywhere i normally fish I would kill them.
But the times i went out to specifically target the species; I had no intention in killing them.
This was in sloppy overgrown swamp water.
We were catching dink young bass in the mix.
Killing any in this swamp water wouldnt change anything other than kill off a few prized snakeheads another angler or young kid and his dad (which I saw fishing together here) would travel down south for. Which no one, especially me, has no reason to even be traveling down this south to begin with. before hand, I never traveled farther south than the millstone river for any fishing. A bunch of guys in North Jersey are doing the same; they are interested in catching one and exploring a new fishery. I wouldnt be surprised if some people from NY/NYC have done the same.
One could say the snakeheads down south actually attracting a sort of tourism down here. Or at least it could be if the fishery took off and became something.

The game warden we met at the end of the day didnt ask if we killed the ones we caught.

Going any more north is debatable, and I would side on killing any where theres any trace of a significance of a trout, smallmouth, pike fishery, etc etc. (sorry, couldnt care about largemouth lol)
That includes the lower delaware river.

But for this swamp water in the middle of nowhere deep south in NJ i dont see why i would kill the only targetable species in that entire watershed.

I really think they should make an exception for a select few waters where they clearly are already established and are the clear target species. mark it something creative like "Division of F&W are monitoring the snakehead population here to research the effects on other game species and their status as an invasive species" or something like that and have them Catch-and-releaseable.

Those things can breath air and crawl across land for quite some distance. They eat everything as well. KILL 'EM ALL!!!!!