Frankenfish "An intruder from China"

[Fish doctor]

A fish known for its voracious appetite was found in Chicago's Burnham Harbor. An angler caught the 18" fish and scientists recognized it as a northern snakehead (Channa sp.), a native of China, Korea and Russia.
The northern snakehead can grow tomore than 3 feet long and has large teeth and tremendous appetite for other fish. It is usually imported for food or aquariums.
Scientists call it a "Frankenfish" for its ability to survive in oxygen-depleted water, move from pond to pond and eat other fish.
The fish have also been spotted in Maryland, Philadelphia and Wisconsin.
Other invasive species are:
- New Zealand Mud Snail (Potamopyrus antipodarum)
- Zebra Mussels (Dreissena polymorpha)
-Carp (4 species: bighead,silver,black and grass)
- Snakehead or frankenfish (Channa sp).
What's ironic is that meanwhile scientists in USA are trying to exterminate the beast, large scale artificial breeding projects are underway in China and neighboring countries to meet a growing demand for snakehead meat troughout Asia, where it's valued as both a soup ingredient and a folk remedy.
Can you imagine this eating machine feasting on steelhead and salmon fingerlings? I wonder if Superiorsteel cought one of this ever.
I couldn't paste a picture of the fish but you can go to Yahoo and type snakehead pictures you will find many there. It is an intimidating fish!! and is not too far away either!! If you catch one of this notify the authorities.

[Spade]

Here's a pic of one caught in the U.S., Maryland I think.http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-2/950949/snakehead.jpg

[Spade]

The way I see it, this fish grows to over 3 feet, is always hungry and very aggressive, survives in most conditions and is good to eat, I say bring them on!:D

[woolybugger65]

i could be wrong but i think i heard that they can live several hours out of water.

[Fish doctor]

Yes, and they can "walk" or move from one place to another. Kind of amazing thing ahh!!

[coho]

Can you leagally keep this fish if you catch one?

[gman2153]

The Pa Fish Commission alerted fisherpeople to keep, kill, and notify them of the location where they caughtthem. They want to enterminate them...

[SuperiorChrome]

I've never caught one in Lake Michigan, but I spend 99.9% of my time out there trolling in deep water for kings. Between that, the zebra mussle, sea lampray and a host of other intruders it's amazing we still have the fishery as it is. The Michigan DNR has done a great job controlling the sea lampray population in Lake Superior. I remember about every third lake trout I caught having one on it. Now I rarely even get one with a scar on it. Lake Michigan is different. I caught about ten kings last summer out of about 200 that had sea lampray attached. They make great sea gull food when chopped into little pieces. My point is that one of these days there is going to be a foreign species we wont be able to control. This is a scary thought.

[Linescreamer]

As mentioned in a prior post........last summer my son caught a fish in the SR that looked just like that. It was about 8 lbs and almost broke his Zebco :) . I looked into what type of fish this was and found it was most probably a Bowfin (also known as Lawyer, Dogfish or Ling). The fish he caught may have been the one pictured above?

[SuperiorChrome]

The fish above is different from a lawyer (bowfin, ling, burbot). We frequently catch lawyer on Bay De Noc during the winter ice fishing for walleye. Quite an ugly fish, but damn good tasting if you can get over their looks. I'll try to post a picture in a second.

[SuperiorChrome]

Image of lawyer is attached. I hope. I don't know how to post pictures directly yet.

[Bluefin]

Looks like a freshwater cousin to a cod or hake.

[the happy salmon]

i thought that was a burbot???? or is lawyer just another name for it???? the pa fish commision has some info on thier site about those snakeheads. i have seen them in aquariums in pet stores but never seen one caught.

[ReininBows]

We catch Ling while fluke fishin but they have whiskers almost like a catfish and aren't as dark, but they are the best eatin!

[Linescreamer]

Yes, Burbot is the same or very closely related.

[Spade]

There are some good pics to show the difference between a snakehead and a bowfin on this webpage.....

http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/snakehead_id.html

[SuperiorChrome]

I've caught burbot that range from dark green to dark brown and light green to light brown. They're all a little different. A friend of mine at work scuba dives in Superior and he's seen some huge ones. He claimed he's seen some in the 5 ft. range. The fun part about them is that they have a tendency to wrap around your arm when you pull them through the ice. The winter is the only time we catch them. They like the cold water. In the summer they move way out into the deep water where it's cold enough.

[gottum]

I've never caught one in Lake Michigan, but I spend 99.9% of my time out there trolling in deep water for kings. Between that, the zebra mussle, sea lampray and a host of other intruders it's amazing we still have the fishery as it is. The Michigan DNR has done a great job controlling the sea lampray population in Lake Superior. I remember about every third lake trout I caught having one on it. Now I rarely even get one with a scar on it. Lake Michigan is different. I caught about ten kings last summer out of about 200 that had sea lampray attached. They make great sea gull food when chopped into little pieces. My point is that one of these days there is going to be a foreign species we wont be able to control. This is a scary thought.

I wish NYDEC would do a better job of controling the lampreys- almost every brown I caught last spring had multiple scars from them. I had plenty of kings scarred as well.
We fillet the parasitic eels to use them as cut bait- it works well believe it or not.
We also use fake rubber bait as well- go figure.

Those snake-heads are scary critters- they've been around for millions of years and will likely be around for millions more- long after we've gone extinct.

[SuperiorChrome]

I've never used them as cut bait. We mostly use spoons and flies, though. I can see them working for sturgeon. I'm happy with the way the Michigan DNR has cleaned them up in Superior, but like I said earlier Lake Michigan is different. I think it may have to do with Wisconsin bordering it. I don't know what kind of control programs they run. I've been in rivers fishing trout in the summer months here a day after they've treated it with lampricide. You should see the pools of 3 and 4 inch lampray on the bottom! I've literally dumped them out of my boots at times. I never thought I would use gravel gaurds as dead lampray guards instead. But at least they're dead.

[tod]

My best friend was ice fishing and he said he was bringing a perch to hand when one of those ugly fish followed his perch to the hole and poked its head out after he pulled the perch out. It flipped him out and he went home. When he told me I didn't believe him and thought maybe he had inhaled to much wacky tobaccy, that was until I read this post