# Snakeheads! (Just putting this out there)



## TBass

Not sure if anyone has seen them, or if it's news to anyone or not, but I shot a snakehead in the Chattahoochee tonight.  It was a good 6-7 lb fish.  Pretty nasty dude!  I know in some places people are keeping their eyes open for them so I can confirm them up to at least the Columbus, GA area.


----------



## 7 point

if you see one kill it they will destory your fish population.


----------



## Michael

Was probably a bowfin and not a snakehead.


----------



## dawg2

Michael said:


> Was probably a bowfin and not a snakehead.



Probably.

Any pics?


----------



## TBass

I got pics.  I know bowfins....this wasn't a bowfin.  Why is this site not letting me post pics though.....?


----------



## TBass

I put pics in my album on my profile.


----------



## dawg2

TBass said:


> I put pics in my album on my profile.



It's a bowfin.   Snakeheads have a long anal fin like the dorsal fin.

Here is a good reference:


----------



## fishndinty

dawg2 said:


> It's a bowfin



lol


----------



## TBass

Great! See! My immediate thought was "bowfin" but I was with a self-proclaimed "snakehead expert" that was showing me that it was a snakehead.......sigh......! I guess I didn't do my part to control the snakehead problem after all. Sorry guys! False alarm....


----------



## dawg2

TBass said:


> Great! See! My immediate thought was "bowfin" but I was with a self-proclaimed "snakehead expert" that was showing me that it was a snakehead.......sigh......! I guess I didn't do my part to control the snakehead problem after all. Sorry guys! False alarm....



They look similar.    I am glad it was a bowfin and not the other.


----------



## Hut2

*bowfin?*

Glad it wasn't a snake head too.


----------



## TBass

I am too!  We have very few bowfins where I moved from and the arrival of snakeheads is way out, so I'm still trying to get used to all these new species.  The few bowfins I have seen in my life were almost white.  I know the species I'm NOT supposed to stick an arrow through, everything else is always debatable as far as what kind of "sucker" or "fin" or "head" it is.  I know my gar, but these other crazy species y'all have down here in the south is taking some getting used to!  Lol!  You never know what you'll see under the lights at midnight around here!


----------



## bullardsls1

Yeah it was a lil freeky the first time I killed a bow fin myself


----------



## yellowhammer73

you ate a bowfin?!?! was it good?


----------



## TBass

Who ate a bowfin......?????  Did I miss that post?


----------



## fish hawk

Did you lip it???I like the spot on their tail,it's cool lookin!!!In the days of my youth we usta fish this small creek outside of Norman Park,it was loaded with big mudfish and big gar too.


----------



## j_seph

yellowhammer73 said:


> you ate a bowfin?!?! was it good?


 


TBass said:


> Who ate a bowfin......????? Did I miss that post?


 Caught one at Santee and through it back. We were told later that it is a good eating fish and lot's of folks loved em.


----------



## Nicodemus

I`m gonna have to be mighty hungry to eat a blackfish.


----------



## smessler34

next time yall catch one .....poke his eyes out and turn him loose so he can go back and tell all his buddies he just cant "see" living here ! and they will all pack up and move on lol!.........down here they are called mudfish. i caught one last year on a flyrod that was 29 inches! them jokers can pull! ...anyway the game and fish fellas ask us to throw em on the bank and let the buzzards eat em because they are not native and are a sevear threat to the "gamefish" population


----------



## TBass

smessler34 said:


> next time yall catch one .....poke his eyes out and turn him loose so he can go back and tell all his buddies he just cant "see" living here ! and they will all pack up and move on lol!.........down here they are called mudfish. i caught one last year on a flyrod that was 29 inches! them jokers can pull! ...anyway the game and fish fellas ask us to throw em on the bank and let the buzzards eat em because they are not native and are a sevear threat to the "gamefish" population



Edited to Remove Profanity ----Edited to Remove Profanity ----Edited to Remove Profanity ----Edited to Remove Profanity ----!!!!  Nice....!  I'm seeing them quite often just bowfishing from the banks.  I can't imagine how many I'd see if I were on a boat!  The hooch must be loaded with 'em!


----------



## Brianf

Shot this one at Guntersville. Both guys on my boat said it was a snakehead. It's not. I think a lot of bowfin are caled snakeheads. Never ate one either.


----------



## yellowhammer73

TBass said:


> Not sure if anyone has seen them, or if it's news to anyone or not, but I shot a snakehead in the Chattahoochee tonight.  It was a good 6-7 lb fish.  Pretty nasty dude!  I know in some places people are keeping their eyes open for them so I can confirm them up to at least the Columbus, GA area.



my bad i misread nasty for tastey. sorry bout that. anyway i laughed alot at your expense. sorry dude. still funny thinking you ate a mud fish.


----------



## SELFBOW

yellowhammer73 said:


> my bad i misread nasty for tastey. sorry bout that. anyway i laughed alot at your expense. sorry dude. still funny thinking you ate a mud fish.



They don't taste bad at all. We have tried them only in the wintertime. Seems like in the summer w warmer water is when the meat is mushy...


----------



## tail_slider3d

I have caught 3 bowfin on my jugs just south of ft benning


----------



## Drexal

Bowfin are fun to catch if nothing else is biting... other than that, they're a pain in the A!  There are loads of them at Stephen C. Foster State Park.  One day last year, we were tearin up some warmouth... once they stopped biting, we hit some shallow parts and the bowfin were hittin artificials every cast (and messin them up to boot).  Fun to catch but I don't eat em.  I tried it once and it taste like crap.  They were made into breaded patties and deep fried.  Didn't know what it was until after I tried it... one bite was enough for me to decide.


----------



## dawg2

smessler34 said:


> next time yall catch one .....poke his eyes out and turn him loose so he can go back and tell all his buddies he just cant "see" living here ! and they will all pack up and move on lol!.........down here they are called mudfish. i caught one last year on a flyrod that was 29 inches! them jokers can pull! ...anyway the game and fish fellas ask us to throw em on the bank and let the buzzards eat em because they are not native and are a sevear threat to the "gamefish" population



Mudfish / Bowfins are native and have been for about 150,000,000 years.  If they were a threat to gamefish, we would have none.


----------



## smessler34

did some research and your 100 % correct dawg2.....guess i should'nt asume the "man" knows it all just cuz he gets to play in the woods lol! he probably has a personal hate for em and just preaches that mess....i personally think them ol mudfish pull pretty good and my kids love to catch em ! anyway thanks for settin me straight.....


----------



## animalguy

I've eaten it. My grandfather cooked it. He said never get the flesh wet. Filet it and cook it. I recall it being as good as other fried fish.


----------



## Big Doe Down

I have eaten bowfin before, (fried). It tasted more like chicken to me than fish. Not bad though


----------



## GT-40 GUY

Hut2 said:


> Glad it wasn't a snake head too.



See that spot on its tail. It's really a red fish and very good eating.    

gt40


----------



## TBass

29 posts on this message and like 7 different names for one species of fish.  Unbelievable!  No wonder there is so much confusion about what is what around here.


----------



## Buckfever

Mud fish, bowfin, and grinner is what I grew up hearing them called. I have caught a lot of them over the years, they're like a bass on steroids and will tear a spinnerbait to pieces.


----------



## FERAL ONE

blackfish, dogfish and shoe pick ( not the way the cajuns spell it, but that is how it sounds !) also grinnell and cyprus trout.


----------



## Buckfever

FERAL ONE said:


> blackfish, dogfish and shoe pick ( not the way the cajuns spell it, but that is how it sounds !) also grinnell and cyprus trout.



That's a couple I forgot about.


----------



## NG ALUM

TBass said:


> I got pics.  I know bowfins....this wasn't a bowfin.  Why is this site not letting me post pics though.....?



lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## TeeyoDoubleDee

I remember seeing a giant fish tail with a spot on it sticking out from under the spillway ledge at Thompson-Weiman Dam on the Etowah River some 30 years ago....now I know what it was.  I have never caught one of these in the Etowah or heard of anyone catching one, but that is definitely what it had to be.


----------



## watermedic

fish hawk said:


> Did you lip it???I like the spot on their tail,it's cool lookin!!!In the days of my youth we usta fish this small creek outside of Norman Park,it was loaded with big mudfish and big gar too.



He didn't if he still has his thumb. They have some nasty teeth.


----------



## castandblast

TeeyoDoubleDee said:


> I remember seeing a giant fish tail with a spot on it sticking out from under the spillway ledge at Thompson-Weiman Dam on the Etowah River some 30 years ago....now I know what it was.  I have never caught one of these in the Etowah or heard of anyone catching one, but that is definitely what it had to be.



Probably not a bowfin. They are not native to the coosa river basin. Not saying that one wasn't released in the etowah but wasn't likely what you saw. They are however native to the river systems that start just below the coosa. Also, they also normaly don't get that big. The one In the pic that brianf shot is a good sized one. 

http://fishesofgeorgia.uga.edu/index.php?page=speciespages/species_page&key=amiacalv


----------



## LipRipper45

first time I caught one I did lip it and he went back in the water real quick!


----------



## Buckfever

castandblast said:


> Probably not a bowfin. They are not native to the coosa river basin. Not saying that one wasn't released in the etowah but wasn't likely what you saw. They are however native to the river systems that start just below the coosa. Also, they also normaly don't get that big. The one In the pic that brianf shot is a good sized one.
> 
> http://fishesofgeorgia.uga.edu/index.php?page=speciespages/species_page&key=amiacalv



That is a good size one, but I've seen a couple that were about twice that size over the years.


----------



## Luckybuck

Southern Louisiana is full of them in the back waters mostly.  Known down there as Shoepick, grinnel, cyprus trout, mud fish, bowfin ( know there were more but can't remember).  We had working hands that helped harvest crops and they swore they witnessed a shoepick turn into a snake.  Guess maybe the looks of a snake head is what they were referring to.


----------

