Fletcher's Cove, Washington,
DC, September 11, 2010
I watched the line from my cast
collapse into an ugly pile in the slow-moving Potomac
River about 35 feet in front of me. "Don't force the
cast, it's one smooth motion," said spey casting
instructor John Bilotta. "And don't choke the rod.
You're holding it way too tight."
On a beautiful Saturday morning in the District I attended
a special spey day gathering at Fletcher's Cove sponsored
by the Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders
(TPFF). The event featured
spey casting demonstrations and instruction by
Dan Davala, founder of TPFF and fishing
department manager of the Arlington, Virginia, Orvis
store and Bilotta, a professional guide and vice
president of TPFF. Both Davala and Bilotta are
Federation of Fly Fishers
certified casting
instructors. There were numerous rods and lines
available for casting and a crowd of around 35 people
showed up for the event.
Davala demonstrated several basic spey-type casts and
discussed the mechanics of using a long rod and special
lines to fish at great distances. He made it look so
simple, so easy, so effortless. It was like watching Tiger
Woods (Version 1.0.1) step up to the tee and smack that
ball into the hole without breaking a sweat. Great swing.
Look at that ball go. Yeah, I could do that. Until you
stepped up and TRIED to do it. After the casting
demonstrations and question and answer time, we grabbed our
rods, or picked one out of the pile of loaners, and spread
out in waist deep water along the shoreline and began to
practice.
My first cast looked pretty good but I quickly followed
that up with several duds. Bilotta walked over and gave me
a couple of tips. Throw less line. D-loop is too small. You're gripping the rod
too tight. Pull the lower grip in toward you on the
forward cast. Stop the rod higher. The casting got a bit
easier but I could tell this would take a bit of
practicing to smooth everything out.
Another TPFF member, Todd, stepped in and gave me a bunch
of tips and helped me work on my casting. Basically, I
shouldn't force the cast. I need to really slow things down
and keep the cast flowing in a fluid motion. I would have
liked to continue casting for the rest of the morning but
the second phase of the meeting was about to begin and I
didn't want to miss it. John Odenkirk, a fisheries biologist with the
Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, was
presenting a short lecture and fish fry featuring
the Northern Snakehead (Channa
argus).
The Northern Snakehead is native to
China and first appeared in a pond in
Crofton, Maryland in 2002. The fish was considered such
a menace that Maryland officials poisoned the entire
pond, killing everything in it, to prevent the possible
spread of the snakehead to other bodies of water. But it
was a wasted effort. Snakeheads soon began appearing in
other locations and DNA data indicated that these fish
had no link to those in the Crofton pond. I remember
fishing at Dogue Creek near Ft. Belvoir in Fairfax
County, Virginia, a few years ago when we came across
Odenkirk and his crew conducting an electro-shocking
survey for snakeheads. In one small section they pulled
up over 300 juvenile snakeheads. At this point I knew
the efforts to stop the spread of this fish was useless.
The fish had established a beachhead and they were
rapidly spreading up and down the Potomac.
Odenkirk discussed the brief history
of the snakehead in our region and the current
research being conducted on this predator to gauge its
impact on the Potomac fisheries. He said the snakehead
has moved up the Potomac River to Chain Bridge, where
the waterfall has stopped their spread but the
department is unsure if the fish has established a
presence in the C&O Canal because funding is tight
and nobody has really investigated the area
thoroughly.
A surprise to everyone has been the ability of the Northern
Snakehead to adapt to water that is up to about 50 percent
saline. Investigators first thought that the salinity of
the Potomac River in its lower reaches near the mouth of
the Chesapeake Bay would be a physical barrier, containing
the spread of the fish. But researches have raised juvenile
snakehead in brackish water and although they don't thrive
as well as they do when they're in fresh water, they do
survive. Odenkirk said one snakehead was found, dead, on
the dock near the boat launch ramp in Cornfield Harbor near Point Lookout State Park
in Maryland. "There was
nobody around and the fish was just lying on the dock,
dead," said Odenkirk. "We don't know if an angler caught
the fish or if it came up in a crab trap and was dumped
there. But the water in that area is very salty and if
the fish was caught in this area then they've spread a
lot farther that we first thought."
According to Odenkirk the snakeheads' primary diet is
the Banded Killifish, a baitfish often found in shallow
inlets and slow water--places that snakeheads also
inhabit. Other species such as shad, bass, frogs, snakes
and other fish have been found in snakehead bellies, but
the Killifish is the preferred meal and Odenkirk
recommended tying up some flies that look like the
Killifish if you're going to target snakeheads. However
he recommends putting your plans on hold for now because
the grass is just too thick to successfully fish for
them in many places. He said to wait until late April
then hit them hard into mid-June, fishing on the high
tide so you can push into the far inlets and slow, still
water of small creeks. Anglers should fish really
shallow water before the grasses get too thick, using a
fast retrieve to get the fish's attention. Other anglers
at the event said they hooked up using frog patterns or
baitfish lures, sight fishing to snakeheads sucking air
in shallow water.
Then the cooking segment began.
After a few questions Odenkirk pulled out a fresh
electro-shocked snakehead and began to clean and filet
the fish as he pointed out various anatomical
features. A woman in the crowd, who has eaten
snakehead before, said it was like a crab. It looks
ugly on the outside but it's really tasty on the
inside.
One conclusion every angler came to
after looking into its mouth--you DO NOT want
to bass-lip this fish when you land it. Odenkirk
recommends grabbing it behind the head while another
angler recommended liberal use of a 2X4 first before
grabbing. Odenkirk opened up the head, where we saw a
set of primitive lungs that were near the gills. Popular
myth says the fish can walk on land, but this is not
true. WIGGLE maybe, but not walk. However Odenkirk said
if you keep the fish moist, it will remain alive out of
the water for several days. He recommends killing the
snakehead outright if you intend to eat it because if
you're caught by federal wildlife officials with a live
snakehead, and if you caught the snakehead in DC and
went over the bridge into Virginia or Maryland, you just
violated the Lacey Act and they can slap you with a $50,000
fine and 5 years in jail.
Odenkirk removes the filets
carefully. The body cavity runs almost to the tail so
you need to cut around the tunnel of support bones
that protects the innards. He also skins the filets
before cooking. The flesh is light pink in color, odor
free and firm. We had the fish prepared three
ways--grilled with no spices, marinated in olive oil
and spices and breaded and deep fried. I liked the
deep fried filets a lot. Put that between bread with a
slaw topping and it would be a killer fish sandwich.
The outside was hot and crunchy while the flesh inside
was light and flakey with no hint of a fishy
aftertaste.