Record Snakehead Arrowed In Maryland
A lot of attention has been paid over the last several years to the highly invasive and voracious snakehead that has taken up residence in North America thanks to illegal introductions. This notorious top-level predator, native to Africa and Asia, is a threat to our ecosystems, and a call has been put out wherever they are found for anglers to kill as many as possible to slow the spread.
A Maryland archer did his part in early August when he arrowed an enormous snakehead in a coastal tributary to the Potomac River. The 17.47-pound northern snakehead is a new Maryland state record that bested the previous record of 16.94 pounds set in 2014.
Todd Murphy, of Marbury, MD, went out on a high tide hoping to find blue catfish in the flooded grass. He ended up finding and impaling seven snakeheads and never saw the first catfish. Hunting from a custom jon boat rigged with an array of bright LEDs, Murphy arrowed the giant snakehead at about 2:30 a.m.
Although fishing records are normally awarded only for fish caught by rod and reel, there are exceptions in Maryland for its three main invasive fish species: northern snakehead, blue catfish and flathead catfish. These species may be caught by any legal recreational harvest method and subsequently considered for state record recognition.
“Eradication is not possible once these fish become established in an open river system such as the Potomac,” DNR inland fisheries biologist John Mullican said in a release. “We expect that these fish will eventually become a permanent part of the Upper Potomac fish community.”
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