{"id":22094,"date":"2018-05-30T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2018-05-30T16:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=22094"},"modified":"2018-07-11T09:12:50","modified_gmt":"2018-07-11T13:12:50","slug":"mechanicsville-man-catches-record-snakehead-in-charles-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2018\/05\/30\/mechanicsville-man-catches-record-snakehead-in-charles-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Mechanicsville Man Catches Record Snakehead in Charles County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>Invasive Fish Tipped Scales at 19.9 Pounds<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_22095\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/05\/Record-Snake-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22095\" class=\"wp-image-22095\" src=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/05\/Record-Snake-2.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of record-breaking snakehead\" width=\"350\" height=\"445\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-22095\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andy Fox with his record-breaking northern snakehead<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It was a long, memorable Memorial Day weekend for 41-year-old Andrew &#8220;Andy&#8221; Fox of Mechanicsville. Fox, along with two of his closest friends headed to Indian Head, Mattawoman Creek, in Charles County for a little overnight bowfishing for northern snakehead.<\/p>\n<p>The trio was out on the water for a few hours the night of May 24, waiting for low tide, but despite the favorable tides, recent rains made visibility nearly impossible.<!--more--> By pure luck, Fox caught a glimpse of a fish illuminated in the glare of the boat\u2019s lights. Thinking it may be carp, Fox said he was slow to respond, but after a few seconds determined that it was a snakehead. \u201cThat\u2019s the biggest snakehead I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d said Fox.<\/p>\n<p>Pulling back his bow, Fox struck the snakehead and hauled in the monster &#8220;frankenfish.&#8221; With the snakehead in the boat\u2019s hull, Fox removed the arrow and said, \u201cThis might be a new state record.\u201d In fact, it is now the biggest northern snakehead caught in the state of Maryland invasive species division.<\/p>\n<p>Fox\u2019s snakehead was officially weighed and certified by the <a href=\"http:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Maryland Department of Natural Resources<\/a> and Gray Brothers Market. The record-breaking northern snakehead tipped the scales at 19.9 pounds with a length of 35.157 inches, breaking the <a href=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2016\/05\/26\/maryland-snakehead-record-broken-18-42-pounds\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2-year-old record<\/a> of Dutch Baldwin\u2019s 18.42 pound catch in May 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Fox plans to have his record breaking northern snakehead mounted for display.<\/p>\n<p>Northern snakeheads are considered an invasive species in Maryland. Current regulations prohibit the importation,\u00a0possession and transporting of live snakeheads. Anglers are encouraged to catch-and-harvest snakeheads immediately or to release them back in the exact location they were found. There is no minimum size or creel limit, and they can be harvested year-round. To learn more, please visit our <a href=\"http:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/fisheries\/Pages\/snakehead.aspx\">invasive species page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Invasive Fish Tipped Scales at 19.9 Pounds It was a long, memorable Memorial Day weekend for 41-year-old Andrew &#8220;Andy&#8221; Fox of Mechanicsville. Fox, along with two of his closest friends headed to Indian Head, Mattawoman Creek, in Charles County for a little overnight bowfishing for northern snakehead. The trio was out on the water for<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2018\/05\/30\/mechanicsville-man-catches-record-snakehead-in-charles-county\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,11],"tags":[3492,4481,2924,4479,3176,4480,3785,3286,2942,3069],"class_list":["post-22094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-fisheries","tag-aquatic-invasive-species","tag-bowfishing","tag-charles-county","tag-indian-head","tag-invasive","tag-mattawoman-creek","tag-northern-snakeheads","tag-snakeheads","tag-st-marys-county","tag-state-fishing-record"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22094"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22151,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22094\/revisions\/22151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}