A Snakehead Kind of Weekend

Type: Nontidal
Region: Eastern
Location: Blackwater Refuge

Five a.m. rolled around pretty quick on Saturday morning. My son in law pulled around back of my home in Solomons, MD. We then loaded up the kayaks grabbed a cup of coffee and headed out for a three hour drive to the Blackwater refuge.

Dale had never caught a Snakehead and wanted to add a new species to his list of fish caught. With the current fishing reports indicating a poor snakehead bite tension filled the cab of the pickup truck and nervous conversation passed the time. Arriving at eight, we launched our kayaks off the Egypt Rd access point, south of Cambridge, MD, into the Little Blackwater River.

We worked the far bank, casting a small ninja top water mouse around lily pads. We also targeted Snakehead fry balls, hoping to agitate the parents into a bite. (fry balls are seen as a group of bubbles accompanying a small school of fish moving about) . There wasn�t any wind, the water laid flat. I casted towards a fry ball, my third cast produced a bite. The fish took a dive, my rod bent over then, nothing. I continued on. Dale paddled over and I gave him instruction on casting around fry balls. We fished on. It wasn�t more then ten minutes when I heard Dale yell out from the far bank, �It�s a big one.� I turned to see the fish break the waters surface. Then nothing, silence, Dale slumped over, holding his head in his hands. We fished on.

Dale switched rods, now casting a fluke into an opening in the lily pads. This time the fish stayed on, smaller in size but the fish added to his list of species caught. We ended up catching six fish total for the day. Not a bad take seeing the reports said otherwise.

Then Sunday afternoon I took a walk back to the marsh near the beach at Calvert Cliffs state park. Stopping along the way to cast near any lily pads I saw. I had several blowups, losing one fish but in the end catching a 24� fish.

Over all it was a snakey weekend!