Maryland man reels in massive 21-pound northern snakehead

July 7 (UPI) -- A Maryland angler broke a state record when he reeled in a northern snakehead that weighed in at a whopping 21 pounds.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources said Damien Cook of Rhodesville was fishing from his kayak in a Dorchester County river when he hooked the invasive fish.

"Honestly, I thought it was just your average 30-inch snakehead when I first hooked the fish," Cook told DNR officials. "It pulled hard but I had the advantage of it being close and I got it in the net pretty quickly."

Cook took the fish to be weighed on a certified scale at Kool Ice Seafood in Cambridge. The 21-pound fish broke the record of 19.9 pounds, set by angler Andrew D. Fox in 2018.