Twenty-three inches and three and quarter pounds. That was the size of a snakehead caught by Derek Radoski and Steve Chaconas this past weekend in Little Hunting Creek near Wessynton.
Chaconas, captain of the National Bass Guide, is out on the water just about every day and said that he knew where the snakeheads were and had seen them, but until this past weekend had never caught one.
“When the fish hit, I thought it was a bass,” Chaconas said. “As it twisted, I thought it was a catfish, but then as it got closer I realized that it was a snakehead. Once we realized that we took special care to get it in the boat.”
While Chaconas’ specializes in bass fishing, which uses a catch and release philosophy, this fish needed to be caught and killed. Chaconas will report it to the Department of Natural Resources and the Bass Pro Shops, both of which are keeping track of theses creatures. The latter organization also gives a small bounty of $50-75 to fishermen who catch these fish.
Radoski said that that he used a frog lure after hearing from a Japanese fisherman that snakeheads like to catch frogs.
“It’s a real pretty fish,” Radoski said. “It’s always exciting to catch a top-water fish. We both saw it and it looked like a Redskin [player].”
The teeth on the creature are ferocious and tried to bite Chaconas as he took it out to weigh and measure it. It was a good size fish, and Chaconas said, “This is certainly mature enough to start reproducing.”