Snakehead Fishing is Definitely Slower This Year Than Last Year

I’ve been out on the Potomac River backwaters for two months now and the bites are there but not near as many as last year and you have to go deeper into the pads to find them.   Landing them seems tougher too, I’ve pulled back to set the hook on my top-water frogs, I feel the “bite”, the line goes tight, I count to “2” and then the next yank and he’s gone!  No snakehead.    Then the classic snakehead move, dive, dive, dives into the weeds and wraps your line on plant roots and he shakes free.  I have seen then as I kayak or cruise in my Grizzly flat bottom.  “Damm that was a nice one wish I thrown my lure before I came this way in the boat!”  But many days so far seeing them is all I got to do.  Some days missing a few nice ones was all I got to do.  But finally on a Tuesday mid July I got two into the boat.   But my question is, “Have they gotten smarter as time has gone by?” I see big ones 3 footers cruising when I’m on the water but no biters….who knows.

Bow Fishing is Hurting the Rod and Reel Fisherman

I have friends that live on the water in Potomac Creek and see fishing boats almost every night since May!  At least 5 nights a week the “UFO’s”, the over lighted bow fishing boats are scanning the banks till midnight or later some nights.  They are definitely taking out a lot of fish and it is finally taking it’s toll, you just don’t see them basking as often when you kayak and finding fish to bite is much tougher this year.  I have noticed a steady decline in their numbers for 4 years now.  The Wildlife studies also showed no increase in snakehead population on the Potomac last year for the first time in 10 years.  Good for those that don’t like snakeheads but bad for those of us that chase them with rod and reel.  The days of landing 10 or more fish in a day and missing another 20 are gone for now as far as I can see.  I have spoken with a few other snakehead addicts
like me and they all say the same thing.  Lower bites, and landed fish on the Rhappahanock, Potomac and Maryland waterways too.  Is it all the bow fishing pressure or a natural thing- who knows?  But  Bass fishing is the same catching nice largemouth in the mornings usually and now in the hot summer they have slowed up .  But of course they are not a legal bow fishing species so bow and arrow guys are not impacting them.

Overall a slow Snakehead season for me….