On an undisclosed river in Dorchester County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland the day after Independence Day this year, Damien Cook of Rhodesdale, Maryland landed a hefty snakehead–the largest ever recorded in Maryland.
It may also be the largest ever recorded anywhere. The kayak angler who took it was fishing with the baitcasting rod he built himself, and hooked the record-breaker on the custom-made chatterbait lure he created–dubbed the “Cooker”, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
The fish came in at a full three feet long and 21 pounds. The previous Maryland snakehead record was a 19.9 pound fish harvested in 2018 by Andrew D. Fox while bow fishing in Charles County.
“Honestly I thought it was just your average 30-inch snakehead when I first hooked the fish,” Cook said in a Maryland Department of Natural Resources release. ”It pulled hard but I had the advantage of it being close and I got it in the net pretty quickly.”
“It’s rare for them to get over 20 pounds,” said Maryland Department of Natural Resources Outreach Coordinator Eric Zlokovitz. “So this is a pretty exceptional catch.”
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) website, there are two subspecies of Snakehead, but both are nonnative species. The northern snakehead originates from China, Russia and Korea, but they are invasive in the United States..The species was first discovered in a pond in Maryland in 2002, and it has become a prolific resident of Maryland waters.
The USGS stated, “Fisheries scientists consider snakeheads to be invasive species because they have the potential to threaten native fishes, the recreational fishing industry, and aquatic ecosystems.
Will this gentleman get any type of monetary reward or official, authentic certificate of this snakehead is deemed to be the biggest ever? He must be very proud!!! Congratulations 🎊🎈🎋🎉