i never thought id say this, but i caught a fish i wasnt able to identify. unfortunately i didnt completely land it so no picture, but i got it to the bank 10 feet below the pier and shook the hook loose before i could get down to it. it looked somewhat like a mudfish and had that general body shape, but i know what those are and it was definately NOT a mudfish. it was also colored more like a gar but had darker green splotches on it, but didnt have the long snout either and ive caught tons of gar before and it defiinately was not a gar and was probably close to 24". the mouth was definately closer looking to a mudfish, but was locateed more towards the top of the head. it was in cooper river main channel on naval weapons station and any help is appreciated and ill be on google looking.
definately was not a mullet…im well aware of what those are and it also had a jig stuck in its mouth. was a light green color with darker green splotches on it and had a more slender build than a mullet.
Sturgeon
also know what a sturgeon is…wasnt that. kinda frustrating…not playing theim starter than anyone game but i have a 4 year biology degree with wildlife management (before goin in the military of course), been fishing my entire life, read fish ID guides for entertainment as a kid…and still havent got it yet.
What were you using for bait?
i actually snagged it in the side, but i saw that it had a jig stuck in its mouth and even after i lost it it kept jumping trying to spit it and didnt look in very good shape.
unfortunately i figured it out and cant believe how dumb i was not to recognize it right away…SNAKEHEAD!!! >:( didnt land it so didnt see it up close to recognize it right away, but it was NOT a mudfish but looked close and looking at the picture i have absolutely no doubt thats what i hooked although mine was lighter in color. anyone else ever hook one inshore? looked in bad shape so hopefully the osprey that lives by the pier or flipper nails it.
http://www.fws.gov/northeast/marylandfisheries/projects/Northern%20Snakehead.html
http://www.dnr.sc.gov/fish/species/bowfin.html
what about this. where you are is at the freshwater cut off line right. I dont know if they hang out up there or not but I fish NWS a good bit and havent caught any wierd stuff. been seeing a few gators for a while now and I found what I believe is a pelican skull a month ago just down from wharf a.
A mud fish and a bowfin are the same. Hopefully, it was not a snake head. I read a good bit about them a few months or so ago and there were no reports that i found of any in SC. It could have been a Chain pickerel too. what ya think? we used catch them all the time in ga. they do lots of head shaking.
- I’d rather be a free man in my grave than living as a puppet or a slave.
nope ive caught chain pickerel too and wasnt one of those. mouth was too wide and ive caught plenty of mudfish/bowfin too to know what they are. unless theres somethun else that really looks like a mudfish…snakehead is the only thing i can come up with. a guy also on the pier saw it on the bank before i tried to climb down to get it and had no clue what it was either at the time.
I read a report of a snakehead in SC a few weeks ago … I will see if I can find the report
Bragging may not bring happiness,
but no man having caught a large fish,
goes home through the alley.
-Anonymous
Sure it wasn’t a Lizard Fish? They’ve been mistaken for snakeheads before. Ugly critters!
x2 on the Lizardfish - Synodus foetens.
- It looked like a mudfish, 2) didn’t get a great look at it,3)it already had a lure in its mouth,4) it was greenish,5) it was in the main channel, 6)24" long…Hmmm let me see…mudfish are abundant in the Cooper River, at times they will hit any lure that moves, Some individuals take on a very green color (I’ve examined over 1000), it was a common size for bowfin, confirmed observations of snakeheads in the Cooper = 0, so…what do you think it was? If you land a questionable fish, freeze it and call the DNR to get it confirmed. Some environmental terrorist could move snakeheads here, but not yet. We have enough exotics to deal with, don’t be the one to add one more and don’t get caught up in wild speculation.
yup i know what a lizard fish is too, also caught some before, yes extremely ugly, and no wasnt one of those either. again i know what a bowfin/mudfish is very well and it was NOT a bowfin! i did not get the fish in my hand, but still got a good enough look at it laying on the shore below the pier before it shook loose to see it wasnt a bowfin by any means. yes bowfin is the closest thing it looked like, but didnt have the right type of head at all. i hope im wrong with snakehead, but it definately wasnt anything anyone else mentioned to me either. goin out again now hopefully i find it washed up dead to see what it really was.
Wanted to bump this old thread I ran across doing a search for bowfin on this site.
I know OhioNavyNuke pretty well. There’s no way he would have misidentified a chain pick or a lizard fish. The only way he would have misidentified a bowfin is if it had a mutant color strain, which is entirely possible (there’s a black and white jersey cow looking blue cat at the SC aquarium, for example).
That being said, the fish that OhioNavyNuke claims to have hooked has been caught in Lake Wylie in 2009. I’ve done enough fishing on Lake Wylie to know that it couldn’t get much worse lol, this isn’t good news.
http://www.dnr.sc.gov/news/yr2009/april27/april27_snakehead.html
Given a Northern snakeheads ability to live in anything short of a bucket of puke, it’s entirely possible that this is what he saw.
Not good if that is a snakehead in our waters. They are notorious for reproducing rapidly and attacking most anything that moves.
LOL @ mullet!
“Fish On”