awesome stuff! only thing i didn't hear is time of day? do you find mornings and evenings best? or do the sneks eat alllll day long under the right conditions?
Great question. Might need a dedicated video to cover it. I tend to do better on the AM on the East side and during the PM on the west side, but I also usually have to fish mornings due to my available fishing time. That said, regardless of area, I prefer sunrise to 10 AM and then 3 PM to sunset.
@@KambotroutFishing awesome! much appreciated, finally figured out how to catch those stream snakeheads i was telling you about, vid will be up in a couple weeks
Great information, thanks. I haven't tried snakehead fishing yet, but I'm doing my homework and getting amped. Planning to get out looking for them in a few weeks!
Steven, you note the mating dance ritual of the snakehead. I figure that was what I was watching the other day. The tide had gone out and I was near low and in a heavily grassed area I saw several spots where snakehead looked to be fighting or wrestling as they cleared a hole in the grass. I tried casting beyond those and pulling my frog through the spot where I saw them but only got one apparent bite but I didn't plant a hook. Considering that this was a mating ritual, it may have been a "get the hell out of here" splash.
Sounds very likely that’s what you were seeing. When they’re in nesting and spawning mode, they rarely hit, and when they do, it’s often a warning or territorial hit vs them actually taking it in.
Great information. It definitely put a few more pieces of the puzzle onto the table. Now, if I could just finish this Dam border I'd catch my teener! Lol Stay salty my friend. 😊
Another preferred condition: It not being the day after some bow fisherman came through and collected a few hundred lol To each their own I get it could be a lot of fun, but imo it sucks when guys go that big with it. Knowing if that’s happening is more important to me than any clouds lol Thanks for sharing your experiences on the conditions man it’s very similar to mine.
lol, very true bro. I just want to see a creel limit on bowfishing. Same for trotlining. Snakehead are a public resource. Some folks take far, far more than they need.
I always had good luck on hot sunny days like today. Caught that big snake today off of her fry ball, the fry were about 1” long. Also spotted another huge fry ball of 3-4” snakeheads, but no adult seemed to be guarding, I guess they were on their own. Interesting to see the different sized babies at the same time and place
Thank you for this is great info! I had pieced together a list of this information from a few of your previous videos, combined with my limited experience fishing the western shore of the flats (all the way at the top there). In my limited experience (once a month in spring/summer/fall for the past 3y), all of your points definitely hold true, but I want to emphasize that I don't fish that area consistently enough to have verified the data myself... So I am so glad you put out this video, as it definitely confirms my experiences (especially how annoying they are during spawn, when you can watch them completely ignore you over and over again. As well as when they are wind, and you can see them tailing, but they ignore everything). My next big goal is to catch them on the fly, which is my main fishing practice. I am going to try with different pike and bass flies to see how that goes, from the kayak.
Happy to help brother! Good luck on the fly too. I’ve caught a couple on the fly. One tip: strip set. Helps if they run at you on the hookset. Also, you might checkout Fred Dewees if you haven’t already. He chases them on the fly exclusively and knows the game very well.
@@KambotroutFishing I learned to change presentation from your videos! I was using a 3.75” orange mouse originally, then stepped down to a 2.75” pink mouse. So glad I got the mini version 😂
Dude, as always, the greatest content out there for aspiring snek anglers! Question about when in your experiences, do they seem to school up and feed? It has has been the best experience for me, just was randomly lucky. It was late evening like 7:30pm mid-late june 8lb and 15lb maybe 5 minutes apart.
Thanks Matthew 👊 When you had that experience, was it on a grass mat? I’ve seen the best schooling on a moving tide on hydrilla mats. Usually well off shore near and inside channels within the hydrilla. Other schooling I see is usually seasonal in the spring for prespawn when they do their spring push.
@KambotroutFishing yeah Roger that it was where typically mid late summer that spot fills heavy with grass mat and typically cleans the water to more than 4 ft of water clarity. However, at that time, the grass had barely begun to grow. Water clarity was maybe 6 inches.
Im only a month into my new snakehead addiction and learning more every day. But I cannot agree more with your tide assessment. I thought a low tide would be best to limit the deep pockets and force them into fishable areas but that’s not what I’m experiencing at all. I don’t even see them at low tide. At high tide I see many more and line you said if there’s a few inches of water above the hydrilla it’s absolutely perfect! Question- at what point when you aren’t getting bites when you’re expecting them do you decide to change colors or lure types? Love the channel keep it going man.
Thanks brother! I usually give it 15-20 minutes with any given lure before switching something about it. I more so switch between subsurface and topwater than colors, or bladed vs non-bladed frogs, but I also usually have 2-3 rods ready in my kayak so that I can test more quickly. For example, I’ll parallel cast a shoreline with a Ripper or Buzzbait, then point cast to pockets with a frog or weightless swimbait. Helps me cover ground more thoroughly and find what’s working.
@@KambotroutFishingthanks for responding. The areas I’m fishing are so thick with hydrilla and milfoil that I’ve found it’s virtually impossible to use anything but top water. Do you have any suggestions for a truly 100% weedless lure that can get through that stuff? Everything marketed as weedless seems to get hung up
@@rjl42985 I’d try a 4-5 inch weedless, Texas rigged minnow type swimbait like a Spark Shad or a swim frog. So long as you get that hook point back in the soft plastic a bit, they’ll run pretty damn weedless 👍
How do you keep the fish when you kayak? Do you only fish and release? Everytime I take a cooler with ice to put them on I get skunked...I call it the ice curse.
Hey Jeff. I know the ice curse well, though I usually call it the “stringer curse” since I usually use a diving stringer like those used by scuba divers/spear fishers. The only exception are the hottest months where I’m on the water pretty much all day. Those days I’ll bring a cooler with ice or a cooler bag with ice.
I really enjoy sight fishing snakehead, or just watching them for that matter. What are the best conditions and times to just see Snakehead swimming about?
Hard to beat sight fishing for them. In murkier or tannic water, all you really need is low wind. Then you’re able to watch for the pads or vegetation moving to cast to that movement. In other waters, I prefer clear water (2 feet or more of visibility) with fairly high light conditions. Easier to see em with sunlight, but they also seem to be more spooky under the sun. I often look for them breaking the surface to breathe to find them at least as much as actually seeing them through the water. Another reason I prefer little or no wind.
Quick question what sz rod you use for your spin reel ? I have a 7ft one could i use it for variety of lures ? Or what do you use for your spin rod for
I prefer a 7’ for spinning, medium heavy at minimum (better to have heavy in thick cover), fast or extra fast action tip for topwater and weedless swimbaits. I’ll use a softer, slower tip (like fiberglass) for chatterbaits.
awesome stuff! only thing i didn't hear is time of day? do you find mornings and evenings best? or do the sneks eat alllll day long under the right conditions?
Great question. Might need a dedicated video to cover it.
I tend to do better on the AM on the East side and during the PM on the west side, but I also usually have to fish mornings due to my available fishing time.
That said, regardless of area, I prefer sunrise to 10 AM and then 3 PM to sunset.
@@KambotroutFishing awesome! much appreciated, finally figured out how to catch those stream snakeheads i was telling you about, vid will be up in a couple weeks
@@DOUBLEO_ObsessionOutdoors looking forward to it!
Good stuff as always dude 👌
Funny you say that about rain. I thought it would be on fire after a down pour and overcast. The few time I tired it was bust.
I thought it would be great too. Many other species I’ve done very well after a heavy rain. Snakehead? Not so much.
Great information, thanks. I haven't tried snakehead fishing yet, but I'm doing my homework and getting amped. Planning to get out looking for them in a few weeks!
Dangerous to chase these fish bro. Once you get a taste for it, it’s hard to chase anything else 😏
Good luck!
Always good information. Thanks for continuing to share you knowledge.......
Thanks brother! Hope it helps 🎣
Steven, you note the mating dance ritual of the snakehead. I figure that was what I was watching the other day. The tide had gone out and I was near low and in a heavily grassed area I saw several spots where snakehead looked to be fighting or wrestling as they cleared a hole in the grass. I tried casting beyond those and pulling my frog through the spot where I saw them but only got one apparent bite but I didn't plant a hook. Considering that this was a mating ritual, it may have been a "get the hell out of here" splash.
Sounds very likely that’s what you were seeing. When they’re in nesting and spawning mode, they rarely hit, and when they do, it’s often a warning or territorial hit vs them actually taking it in.
Great information. It definitely put a few more pieces of the puzzle onto the table. Now, if I could just finish this Dam border I'd catch my teener! Lol
Stay salty my friend. 😊
@@R.A.andTheOutdoorslol thanks brother! Happy to help 👊
Great information, bro. Keep it up. Thanks for the information.
Thanks brother. Much more to come
Great information
@@Studio-jk1tv thanks. Hopefully does some good for you out on the water
@@KambotroutFishing I’ve never fish for them before, but I’m going to start
Another preferred condition:
It not being the day after some bow fisherman came through and collected a few hundred lol
To each their own I get it could be a lot of fun, but imo it sucks when guys go that big with it. Knowing if that’s happening is more important to me than any clouds lol
Thanks for sharing your experiences on the conditions man it’s very similar to mine.
lol, very true bro.
I just want to see a creel limit on bowfishing. Same for trotlining. Snakehead are a public resource. Some folks take far, far more than they need.
I always had good luck on hot sunny days like today. Caught that big snake today off of her fry ball, the fry were about 1” long. Also spotted another huge fry ball of 3-4” snakeheads, but no adult seemed to be guarding, I guess they were on their own. Interesting to see the different sized babies at the same time and place
I do well in the mostly sunny days sometimes, but not often. Fry balls can def save the day during those ultra sunny times.
Great video and information heading
Thanks Gavin!
Thank you for this is great info! I had pieced together a list of this information from a few of your previous videos, combined with my limited experience fishing the western shore of the flats (all the way at the top there). In my limited experience (once a month in spring/summer/fall for the past 3y), all of your points definitely hold true, but I want to emphasize that I don't fish that area consistently enough to have verified the data myself... So I am so glad you put out this video, as it definitely confirms my experiences (especially how annoying they are during spawn, when you can watch them completely ignore you over and over again. As well as when they are wind, and you can see them tailing, but they ignore everything). My next big goal is to catch them on the fly, which is my main fishing practice. I am going to try with different pike and bass flies to see how that goes, from the kayak.
Happy to help brother! Good luck on the fly too. I’ve caught a couple on the fly. One tip: strip set. Helps if they run at you on the hookset.
Also, you might checkout Fred Dewees if you haven’t already. He chases them on the fly exclusively and knows the game very well.
Thanks for sharing the info! FINALLY got my first snake on topwater 😎 3 short strikes, a very quick lure change and it was game on!
Congrats! Good call on the lure change. Was it a color change, bladed change, or size?
@@KambotroutFishing I learned to change presentation from your videos! I was using a 3.75” orange mouse originally, then stepped down to a 2.75” pink mouse. So glad I got the mini version 😂
Excellent video buddy! Perfect timing too... Just got to the water for some Sneks 😎
Thanks brother! Great to hear you’re back out there! Good luck!
Thank you Steve! Hope all is well with your Awesome family! 🙏💪
@@fabfishing7422 likewise brother. Miss y’all’s videos!
@@KambotroutFishing Thank you Bro 😊
Dude, as always, the greatest content out there for aspiring snek anglers! Question about when in your experiences, do they seem to school up and feed? It has has been the best experience for me, just was randomly lucky. It was late evening like 7:30pm mid-late june 8lb and 15lb maybe 5 minutes apart.
Also I was a decent 150-250 ft from shore
Thanks Matthew 👊
When you had that experience, was it on a grass mat?
I’ve seen the best schooling on a moving tide on hydrilla mats. Usually well off shore near and inside channels within the hydrilla.
Other schooling I see is usually seasonal in the spring for prespawn when they do their spring push.
@KambotroutFishing yeah Roger that it was where typically mid late summer that spot fills heavy with grass mat and typically cleans the water to more than 4 ft of water clarity. However, at that time, the grass had barely begun to grow. Water clarity was maybe 6 inches.
@@matthewreynolds1831 was it earlier in the year then? When the grass hadn’t grown in?
@KambotroutFishing you are correct, I just looked at what the pictures were dated, and it was may 22nd. My fault about that
Im only a month into my new snakehead addiction and learning more every day. But I cannot agree more with your tide assessment. I thought a low tide would be best to limit the deep pockets and force them into fishable areas but that’s not what I’m experiencing at all. I don’t even see them at low tide. At high tide I see many more and line you said if there’s a few inches of water above the hydrilla it’s absolutely perfect!
Question- at what point when you aren’t getting bites when you’re expecting them do you decide to change colors or lure types?
Love the channel keep it going man.
Thanks brother!
I usually give it 15-20 minutes with any given lure before switching something about it. I more so switch between subsurface and topwater than colors, or bladed vs non-bladed frogs, but I also usually have 2-3 rods ready in my kayak so that I can test more quickly.
For example, I’ll parallel cast a shoreline with a Ripper or Buzzbait, then point cast to pockets with a frog or weightless swimbait. Helps me cover ground more thoroughly and find what’s working.
@@KambotroutFishingthanks for responding. The areas I’m fishing are so thick with hydrilla and milfoil that I’ve found it’s virtually impossible to use anything but top water. Do you have any suggestions for a truly 100% weedless lure that can get through that stuff? Everything marketed as weedless seems to get hung up
@@rjl42985 I’d try a 4-5 inch weedless, Texas rigged minnow type swimbait like a Spark Shad or a swim frog. So long as you get that hook point back in the soft plastic a bit, they’ll run pretty damn weedless 👍
Went out to mariners point today. Boy it was a hot one. Lots of hookups but no snakes… only bass😢
That’s rough brother. Many of them seem to be hitting the spawn hard too. Def think that’s a factor along with the heat.
How do you keep the fish when you kayak? Do you only fish and release? Everytime I take a cooler with ice to put them on I get skunked...I call it the ice curse.
Hey Jeff. I know the ice curse well, though I usually call it the “stringer curse” since I usually use a diving stringer like those used by scuba divers/spear fishers.
The only exception are the hottest months where I’m on the water pretty much all day. Those days I’ll bring a cooler with ice or a cooler bag with ice.
I really enjoy sight fishing snakehead, or just watching them for that matter. What are the best conditions and times to just see Snakehead swimming about?
Hard to beat sight fishing for them.
In murkier or tannic water, all you really need is low wind. Then you’re able to watch for the pads or vegetation moving to cast to that movement.
In other waters, I prefer clear water (2 feet or more of visibility) with fairly high light conditions. Easier to see em with sunlight, but they also seem to be more spooky under the sun.
I often look for them breaking the surface to breathe to find them at least as much as actually seeing them through the water. Another reason I prefer little or no wind.
@@KambotroutFishing Thanks man, love your videos.
Quick question what sz rod you use for your spin reel ? I have a 7ft one could i use it for variety of lures ? Or what do you use for your spin rod for
I prefer a 7’ for spinning, medium heavy at minimum (better to have heavy in thick cover), fast or extra fast action tip for topwater and weedless swimbaits.
I’ll use a softer, slower tip (like fiberglass) for chatterbaits.
Thanx bro appreciate you !!! big fan 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾