FishUSA.com Fishing Tackle

Author Topic: Toothy Tidal Potomac Monster  (Read 8442 times)

Fat Boy

  • MFF Mod Team
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2,805
  • Team Mason-Dixon
Toothy Tidal Potomac Monster
« on: Sep 24, 2012, 10:36 AM »
We had a tough day, but one giant fish made my day.  It engulfed my chatterbait along a windy shoreline, giving me a fight that I’ll never forget.  Not many fish peel drag off my baitcaster, but this one sure as heck did.


This beast weighed 14 pounds and was 36 ½” long.  Any time you can catch a fish three feet long, it’s a good day.  Wow, and what a fight.  I’m no longer snakehead challenged.  At that point, I forgot all about how tough the bass fishing was that day.


As if the challenge of catching and landing them isn’t enough, unhooking them when they entirely swallow your lure and then killing them, as required by law, is even more challenging.  Their jaws are extremely strong.  No problem…I have musky gear, a strong pair of massive longnose pliers and a jaw spreader, right?  Well…ugh…no.  My jaw spreader was at home in my musky box, and my pliers were on the boat but apparently went overboard after going over a speed bump that I didn’t see until it was too late, a little too fast!

Where’s the chatterbait?  Too far away for these forceps to reach and out of view, down it’s gullet almost.  Rodger, luckily, had a jumbo extra long pair that helped extract the lure as I used his other pair to pry open the toothy jaw.


And then, the feeble forceps weren’t strong enough to rip the gills out, and we didn’t have a decent knife on board.  Funny thing, Rodger gave me a new knife and it was at home, still in the package.  He used his keychain knife to cut the gills out as I gripped them one at a time with the forceps.  Finally, we killed the beast…it almost looked folded up in my mega sized cooler.
 

Let me tell you something boys, this fish was 36 ½” of solid muscle.  It was quite a thrill.  After I weighed it at home, I filleted it that night and cleaned up the bloody mess.  I’m going to blog about these things soon.  Tonight, my wife and I are going to eat this monster of the Potomac.  

Fat Boy

  • MFF Mod Team
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2,805
  • Team Mason-Dixon
Re: Toothy Tidal Potomac Monster
« Reply #1 on: Sep 24, 2012, 11:50 AM »
By the way, if you are caught either releasing one or having one alive in your posession, you face a steep fine.  These are an invasive species.  But they are here to stay in the Tidal Potomac in Maryland/Virginia.  Recently, the world record was broken, 18 pounds, beating the old record from Japan by almost 2 pounds.  I was only a couple pounds off the old record.  Something else to shoot for!

waterwolf603

  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,853
Re: Toothy Tidal Potomac Monster
« Reply #2 on: Sep 24, 2012, 12:02 PM »
that is a biggun nice catch and kill how did it taste?
lakes, lies, and marble eyes

Fat Boy

  • MFF Mod Team
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2,805
  • Team Mason-Dixon
Re: Toothy Tidal Potomac Monster
« Reply #3 on: Sep 24, 2012, 04:39 PM »
Thanks WW.  Cookin' it up tonight in the grill.  I'll post a taste report tomorrow.

I can see targeting these things in my near future!  Big, nasty, toothy and ugly!  But if they're as tasty as everyone says, heck yeah I will do my part to help eradicate them!

OTIS

  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,627
Re: Toothy Tidal Potomac Monster
« Reply #4 on: Sep 25, 2012, 06:33 AM »
Great catch!  Seems like you could use your musky gear for those.  Interested in hearing how it tasted.
'If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.' -- Ronald Reagan

'Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.' -- Ronald Reagan

Fat Boy

  • MFF Mod Team
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2,805
  • Team Mason-Dixon
Re: Toothy Tidal Potomac Monster
« Reply #5 on: Sep 26, 2012, 10:33 PM »
Thanks O, I tell you what, it was one of the best freshwater fish that I've ever tasted!  Clean, flaky white flesh...not too fishy of a taste, and flavorful too.  They taste a heckuva lot better than they look!

waterwolf603

  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,853
Re: Toothy Tidal Potomac Monster
« Reply #6 on: Mar 21, 2013, 01:30 PM »
Thanks O, I tell you what, it was one of the best freshwater fish that I've ever tasted!  Clean, flaky white flesh...not too fishy of a taste, and flavorful too.  They taste a heckuva lot better than they look!

how did you end up cookin it, use some panko and fry it up? i bet that would be good
lakes, lies, and marble eyes

Fat Boy

  • MFF Mod Team
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2,805
  • Team Mason-Dixon
Re: Toothy Tidal Potomac Monster
« Reply #7 on: Jun 12, 2013, 05:09 PM »
WW603, basically I kept it simple.  Filet's baked in a pan, olive oil coating and in the pan, parmesan cheese crusted with McCormick's Garlic and Herb seasoning.  It's a simple recipe that I use for rockfish/stripers.  Surprisingly, the snakeheads taste quite a bit like stripers, maybe even better.

Sorry for the late response.

BTW, the world record was broken a couple weeks ago, 17 pounds, out of the Tidal Potomac.

 



Iceshanty | MyFishFinder | MyHuntingForum
Contact | Disclaimer | Sponsor
© 2004- MyFishFinder.com
All Rights Reserved.