First Snakehead

[John Riccio]

I caught my first Snakehead at Occoquan today with a white and Chartreuse Clouser.  I was sight fishing to her and she went at the fly enough for me to set a great hook in it's mouth.   She was pregnant with huge egg sacks but had a completely empty stomach.   I found many small red parasite worms in her, some were even in the egg sacks.  I didn't find any worms in the meat, so it should be fine to eat when cooked through.

Also a Chain Bridge Striper from Saturday morning.

-John R

[HeaveToo]

That fish is a beast!  Nice catch.  That is about where I caught my first one.

[Lost Sailor]

We were going to fish back there yesterday morning as well, but went
to Kanes instead. Had one snaked head to the boat and shook the
hook. The big catch was a 26.8 lb snapping turtle on a rattletrap!

[Aaron O]

Congrats John,  I'm super jealous about the snakehead.  great photos.  Just to jog your memory, I'm the guy that was fishing next to you on saturday.  We had that discussion about the openning of stripper season.  See ya out there some time.

 

 

Aaron

 

On Sunday, May 6, 2012 10:07:04 PM UTC-4, John R wrote:

[John R]

Yeah, good meeting you on Saturday Aaron.  I'm excited to eat my first fly caught Striper when the season opens on the DC side.

-John

[Aaron O]

Same here.  My wife told me that I'm not to talk about fishing anymore until I bring her home some dinner.  I think she is half convinced that I'm not actually fishing.  :)  Just remember that there is a limit of 2 per day and has to be over 18" from tip to tail.

 

 

See ya next time,

 

Aaron

 

 

 

[John R]

TPFR,
does anyone know what those big Silo looking structures are past the Occoquan footbridge?  How bad is it to eat the Snakehead from here?  It looked like there were discharge pipes under the Silo structures in the concrete wall.  I saw a previous discussion that mentioned the DANGER signs for unexpected discharge.  I want to know if the water is clean or if I'm going to be eating radioactive Snakehead.  Any info on this area would be great.

-John R

On Sunday, May 6, 2012 10:07:04 PM UTC-4, John R wrote:

[HeaveToo]

I doubt that it is radio active.  I have eaten a striper out of this area last fall and it was fine.

I was fishing down there this morning.  It was too cool for the snakehead to be active, not enough current to get the stripers moving, and the water was very high 2 hours after the high tide.  I did manage to catch 1 24" catfish down there.  It was pretty windy too and my kayak was blowing around a lot.

How did you get down to the area by the rocks without a kayak or boat?

On Sunday, May 6, 2012 10:07:04 PM UTC-4, John R wrote:

[John R]

We had a large canoe and a kayak.  We met a few guys who walked in from the north side though.  Might have to walk through private property.  I'm not sure.
-John R