My son and I drove an hour and 1/2 to Havre DeGrace, Maryland and met up with my brother Chris who lived near the river and had a boat. He does much fishing in the river flats below the dam for striped bass and catfish, but has never seen a snakehead before. He was skeptical I could catch one to say the least. I told him they like shallow weed beds and tend to prefer buzz baits and top water splashing lures. I set up my young son with a weedless frog and I put on a buzz bait. We stopped at the second weed bed he knew about and I hooked and landed our first snakehead!
We fished the rest of the day but only landed a few bass. I was excited to cook this one up!
I was shocked when I finally got home at 9pm and the fish which had been out of water and sealed in a contractor trash bag in the back on my vehicle for many hours was still alive! These things are tough and I later learned they can survive up to 4 days outside of water. That would explain the excessive slime.
The fish was a bear to fillet. It was bloody and the scales were like plastic plates. I soaked the fillets in some salt water overnight and they were a nice pink color and meaty.
The next day for lunch after rinsing in fresh water, I fried the fillets in butter with just a little lemon pepper seasoning to taste what the true flavor of the fish was.
The moment of truth came and I am really impressed.
