Panfish, Bass, and Turtles.

[IcatchDinks]

This happened a few weeks ago, but it was interesting, and I like telling stories, so I'm gonna tell it anyway. 

 

Memorial Day. We had a family BBQ later that evening, but I decided to go fishing in the afternoon, beforehand. Tried a couple small ponds around town, with no luck. There's this little abandoned pond behind the Kohl's that I've seen some people fishing before and figured I try. Caught a ton, and I mean a TON, of large pumpkin seed. Average size for them was seven inches, biggest was over 9. Caught three or four at 8. Lots of fun. But I like bass.

 

So I switched ponds again. Caught two small bass on a Texas rigged senko, and decided to try my luck with top water. (whopper plopper to be exact.) Nothing doing. I'm fishing, nothing striking. But it's a nice day, and I'm enjoying it, so what the heck. I keep fishing it. 

 

I notice a smallish snapping turtle at the water's edge, two or three feet in front of me. He eyes me up. I eye him up, we decide we're okay hanging out together, and I keep fishing, and he keeps doing whatever turtles do. 

Fifteen minutes later, I've decided it's time to head home. One more cast. 

I throw out the plopper, real it back in, nothing all the way back to the shore. I'm about to lift it up out of the water when that old snapper pokes his head out of the water right next to it, eyes it up for a split second, and bites. And I don't have my pliers. 

 

So I drag the old boy onto the shore, hold him in place with my foot, and carefully begin to extricate my lure from his very powerful, very angry mouth. He's mad. I'm mad. He's hissing. I'm cursing.

 

How do I extricate my hook, you ask? You and me both. 

Normally, I would just cut him loose and be done with it. But he had the treble hook caught in both the top and bottom of his mouth. I felt like I would be seriously harming him if I let him go like that, and besides- I wanted my lure back.

 

It's really tough, leathery skin in there. Kinda like hooking your jeans or something. And all I had at my disposal was the contents of my tackle bag. And it had a surprising lack of actual tools. 

 

I tried using my car keys to pry the hook out of his mouth. And was partially successful, getting the hook out of the top of his mouth  But that was working way too close to those jaws for my comfort. And he was activley trying to take off my fingers.

 

I finally found my fish stringer. The kind you hook through the gill flaps and let them swim in the water until you're ready to bring them home.

I bent the wire of one of the stringer hooks out straight and used that to fish the other treble hook out of the bottom of his mouth. Finally he was free. And I was late for the BBQ. 

 

But it was a fun story to share, and I took a couple pictures.

 

[Conrod]

Now That was a Great story!  Thank you for sharing the exciting experience ?  Always the last cast, huh?  LOL

[BrianMDTX]

Any turtle is a PITA. I caught a massive softshelled turtle on a small hook baited with half a nightcrawler. He kept pulling his head into his shell which made it tough to get the hook out, but eventually I got it free with little to no harm done. 
 

It had two happy endings. One for the turtle. Me? That was the straw that broke the camel’s back and at that point I never fished with live bait again and concentrated on lures. Which made a tremendous difference in my bass fishing. So…thanks turtle! 

[IcatchDinks]

1 hour ago, BrianMDTX said:

It had two happy endings. One for the turtle. Me? That was the straw that broke the camel’s back and at that point I never fished with live bait again and concentrated on lures. Which made a tremendous difference in my bass fishing. So…thanks turtle! 

 

I should have realized the snapper would go after the lure. But for some reason I assumed he would only be interested in live bait. 

 

Speaking of, that's the only thing I could get the bass to bite last night. Ned rigs, senkos, jigs, spinners, cranks: all came up empty. But I caught four on the old worm and bobber set up. Sometimes the classics are the way to go. 

[TnRiver46]

2 hours ago, IcatchDinks said:

 

I should have realized the snapper would go after the lure. But for some reason I assumed he would only be interested in live bait. 

 

Speaking of, that's the only thing I could get the bass to bite last night. Ned rigs, senkos, jigs, spinners, cranks: all came up empty. But I caught four on the old worm and bobber set up. Sometimes the classics are the way to go. 

Snappers love top water. I think ducklings are one of their main food sources 

[Basser2021]

On 6/16/2022 at 9:24 AM, IcatchDinks said:

This happened a few weeks ago, but it was interesting, and I like telling stories, so I'm gonna tell it anyway. 

 

Memorial Day. We had a family BBQ later that evening, but I decided to go fishing in the afternoon, beforehand. Tried a couple small ponds around town, with no luck. There's this little abandoned pond behind the Kohl's that I've seen some people fishing before and figured I try. Caught a ton, and I mean a TON, of large pumpkin seed. Average size for them was seven inches, biggest was over 9. Caught three or four at 8. Lots of fun. But I like bass.

 

So I switched ponds again. Caught two small bass on a Texas rigged senko, and decided to try my luck with top water. (whopper plopper to be exact.) Nothing doing. I'm fishing, nothing striking. But it's a nice day, and I'm enjoying it, so what the heck. I keep fishing it. 

 

I notice a smallish snapping turtle at the water's edge, two or three feet in front of me. He eyes me up. I eye him up, we decide we're okay hanging out together, and I keep fishing, and he keeps doing whatever turtles do. 

Fifteen minutes later, I've decided it's time to head home. One more cast. 

I throw out the plopper, real it back in, nothing all the way back to the shore. I'm about to lift it up out of the water when that old snapper pokes his head out of the water right next to it, eyes it up for a split second, and bites. And I don't have my pliers. 

 

So I drag the old boy onto the shore, hold him in place with my foot, and carefully begin to extricate my lure from his very powerful, very angry mouth. He's mad. I'm mad. He's hissing. I'm cursing.

 

How do I extricate my hook, you ask? You and me both. 

Normally, I would just cut him loose and be done with it. But he had the treble hook caught in both the top and bottom of his mouth. I felt like I would be seriously harming him if I let him go like that, and besides- I wanted my lure back.

 

It's really tough, leathery skin in there. Kinda like hooking your jeans or something. And all I had at my disposal was the contents of my tackle bag. And it had a surprising lack of actual tools. 

 

I tried using my car keys to pry the hook out of his mouth. And was partially successful, getting the hook out of the top of his mouth  But that was working way too close to those jaws for my comfort. And he was activley trying to take off my fingers.

 

I finally found my fish stringer. The kind you hook through the gill flaps and let them swim in the water until you're ready to bring them home.

I bent the wire of one of the stringer hooks out straight and used that to fish the other treble hook out of the bottom of his mouth. Finally he was free. And I was late for the BBQ. 

 

But it was a fun story to share, and I took a couple pictures.

 

I always catch snapping turtles while fishing. They follow me wherever I go. Good story!

[IcatchDinks]

12 hours ago, Basser2021 said:

I always catch snapping turtles while fishing. They follow me wherever I go. Good story!

 

I hope to avoid them in the future. Lol. 

[WVU-SCPA]

Was fooled in last weeks lunker tournament by one that size.  Felt the bite at the end of a lay down on a trig.  Laid into it and he was already moving left so I'm screaming for the net.  Makes 3 years in a row I've hooked a snapper off that tree.

 

Without trebles they are pretty skilled at unhooking themselves. 

[Koz]

I never head the "pleasure" of hooking a snapping turtle, but one day a big box turtle hit one of my treble hook baits and got hooked in the upper and lower jaw. Luckily I had pliers. But it took 20 minutes or so of him pulling back in his shell to tire him out so I could unhook him.

[Bluebasser86]

I caught a big snapper while fishing for blue cats a couple weekends ago. Got him unhooked and sent him on his way. Was actually pretty mild mannered compared to how they usually are. Only needed my 6" pliers and quick reflexes to get the hook out.