10 Tips for Catching Northern Snakehead

Fishing for northern snakehead is one of the most exciting types of freshwater fishing. They will absolutely crush a topwater buzzbait while giving you a reenactment of a great white eating a seal in South Africa. On top of being exciting to catch, northern snakehead are also an invasive species. This means you can feel good about helping protect your local waterway by fishing for snakehead. In this post, we compiled 10 tips for catching more snakehead on your fishing trips. Northern Snakehead are voracious eaters and fighters so fishing for them is a blast. Snakehead are also great eating. Check out our post on Eating Snakehead and our Fried Snakehead Recipe.

We’ve been fishing for snakehead since shortly after they first appeared in the Potomac River system around 2002. All that time around the river taught us a lot about snakehead and helped us develop some useful tricks for catching them. Here are our top 10 snakehead fishing tips.

1. Find the Vegetation

Snakehead love to lurk in thick, green vegetation. Many tributaries of the Potomac are covered in it and coincidentally are also full of snakehead. Vegetation and slow moving water are the keys to good snakehead habitat.

2. Head to the Shallows

I can’t overemphasize enough how important it is to fish shallow clearings within the vegetation. This is why I’m a strong believer in fishing from a kayak for snakehead. Kayaks allow you to quietly glide through the vegetation in shallow areas that a boat would not be able to get anywhere near.

3. Braided Line

You can’t effectively fish vegetation without braided line. Monofilament line will snag and then snap as you try to get it out. Braided line is a lot tougher and you can pull it right through the vegetation. There are a lot of different types of braided line out there. Just look for one that looks well made and like it won’t fall apart. This one should work just fine.

4. Weedless Lures To Catch Snakehead

Lures have to be weedless for snakehead fishing. You need to fish the vegetation to catch snakehead and you can’t fish vegetation without a good weedless lure. The only exception here is that crankbaits can also work well if you use them along the vegetation edge and can avoid getting snagged. Those treble hooks will latch on to any stray vegetation so you have to fish them carefully. One of the most popular ways to catch snakehead is to pop a weedless frog through the vegetation. This is the type of frog lure I’m talking about.

5. Get out on the water

In my opinion, the best way to catch snakehead is from a kayak. Snakehead habitat access points on land are usually all overfished. To catch a lot of snakehead you need to cover more ground and a kayak is usually the only way to do that. Regular boats are too large and draw too much water to effectively reach most snakehead hiding places.

6. Well Diversified Tackle Box

As with any fish, sometimes snakehead just aren’t interested in the lure you’re currently fishing with. Make sure you have a couple different options of all the best snakehead lures. You can check out our post on Best Snakehead Lures, but the quick summary is buzzbaits, chatterbaits, diving crankbaits all work well. Try rotating through these lures if you’re not getting bites in places you think you should be.

7. Know Where to Fish

As an invasive species that is still spreading, snakehead are not currently uniformly distributed among bodies of water. Knowing where snakehead are the most concentrated in your area is key to catching them. Snakehead have spread throughout a significant portion of the country so you’ll need to read fishing reports for your local waterways. In the Virginia/Maryland region the best place to catch snakehead is still tributaries of the Potomac between Great Falls and the 301 bridge. They’ve established populations in many other bodies of water around here but the Potomac still has the highest concentration. The picture below is a small tributary that has a lot of snakehead living in it. You’d be surprised how far upstream they will swim sometimes.

8. Watch the Water Surface

Snakehead frequently give away their location if you pay attention to the water surface. A shaking lily pad is often a sign that a snakehead is swimming underneath. Snakehead have suprabranchial organ. That means that snakehead are able to breathe by taking gulps of air above the water surface. This helps them survive in stagnate, poorly oxygenated water as well as on land for several days if necessary. During the summer you will see snakehead rise to the surface and take a breath of fresh air if you watch the surface closely enough. The last giveaway on the water surface is their tail wake. Snakehead often live in shallow water so you can see a wake behind them when they move through the water.

9. Try Different Times and Tides

Sometimes you are fishing areas where it looks like perfect snakehead habitat but you still can’t seem to coax any strikes. Going back to that same spot during a different time of day or different tidal level can sometimes be the trick. Even though snakehead live in freshwater, many of the tributaries of the Potomac are still affected by the tides. Snakehead can be harder to find during high tides because they have a lot more water to hide in.

10. Bring a Cooler

This last tip is less of a tip on how to catch snakehead and more of a tip about what to do when you catch one. Snakehead are pretty good eating and as an invasive species you’re helping your local ecosystem by removing them from the waterway. In most places you are actually required to kill snakehead if you catch one. So you’ll definitely want to check your local rules. You can read more about eating snakehead or check out our Fried and Blackened snakehead recipes. Creating a demand for snakehead filets is a great way to slow their spread. Overfishing has certainly pushed many species to the brink before, so if enough people start eating snakehead we could really put a dent in their population.

Hopefully these tips help lead you to catching more snakehead. If you think we missed anything please let us know in the comments below!