DNR Announces Second-Annual Snakehead Fish Contest

It’s that time of year again, when anglers can earn some extra money for catching unwanted snakehead fish in the Chesapeake Bay’s watershed.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) second annual snakehead contest offers prizes and possibly cash for anyone who removes at least one of the “invasive, non-native” snakeheads from the bay and its waterways.

“We do not want snakeheads in our waters,” DNR Inland Fisheries Director Don Cosden said. “This initiative is a way to remind anglers that it is important to catch and remove this invasive species of fish.”

The unwanted predator of local waters was first seen in May 2002 when an angler at Crofton Pond caught an unusual looking 18-inch fish. The angler released the fish, but then a month later, another angler caught a 26-inch fish similar to the previous one. It was then identified as the northern snakehead fish.

According to the DNR, someone illegally placed the fish in the Potomac River and it has wreaked havoc on wildlife ranging from Great Galls down to the Rhode and Nanticoke Rivers. The snakehead is a top predator in the waterways and negatively impacts the ecosystem and other valuable fish populations, according to a DNR release.

“These fish clobber any type of moving bait you throw,” Rodney Hose of Lexington Park said in the release. Hose won last year’s snakehead fish contest and earned a Bass Pro Shops gift card.

Anglers hoping to compete in the contest should submit catch details and a photo of their dead snakehead online to the DNR angler’s log. The contest lasts until Nov. 30 and three lucky winners will receive a $200 gift card from Bass Pro Shops, a Maryland State Passport that provides unlimited day-use entry up to 10 passengers in a vehicle, unlimited boat launching at state park facilities and a 10 percent discount on state-operated concessions and boat rentals.

For more information on identifying and killing snakeheads, check out a short video by the DNR.

Do you think you have what it takes to catch a snakehead fish?