Turtles and bass

[geo g]

Since I live in South Florida we have no shortage of turtles, gators, exotic fish, big lizards, big snakes, and a few crocs.  I have caught big turtles on bottom plastics, and they put up a hell of a fight.  Before trying to get the hook out, turn them on their back.  It makes the job so much easier.  

They have little effect on the fishing, at least on our waters.  Just don't want to go swimming naked!

[scaleface]

A lot of things eat bass eggs . Thats one of the reasons bass produce so many thousands of eggs .

[Functional]

well, seems it might hold some water but nothing definitive. 

 

Interesting take on surfacing turtles being around structure, going to have to look into that more when I see some pop up.

 

When the water temp cools a little and they start moving up into the fingers I may pay more attention to this and see if I can get an average with and without turtle sightings. 

[TnRiver46]

On 9/12/2022 at 10:44 PM, CrashVector said:

I've noticed that wherever I see lots of turtles, that's exactly where the bass aren't.

Come on over for some Cajun smothered turtle soup.

 

It'll change your life.

Do you use a snapping turtle? All the ones I catch are soft shell and not legal for harvest. And they bite really hard, even though people don’t call them snappers haha.

 

also I’ve seen someone clean a turtle, it took forever. My in-laws in Ohio fish for and eat snapping turtles quite often 

[gim]

Many years ago when I was a kid, my brother and I were fishing off a pier for sunfish.  We had a decent stringer of them over the side of the pier in the water.  When we lifted it up, some of them were chewed up and mangled.  I thought "what the heck" and then it dawned on me that 10 minutes earlier we had seen a sizable snapping turtle surface a ways out.

 

The next time I lifted that stringer out, that snapping turtle was eyeing up the rest of our sunfish.  It was significantly bigger than I had initially thought it was too.

 

I wouldn't want to be noodling for catfish and then stick my hand into a dark hole in the river and have one of those suckers latch on.

[Choporoz]

I fish in waters with lots of turtles.   I never noticed any correlation one way or another about the success of bass fishing around them.

 

  But....I do have a longstanding, nagging curiosity about turtles....

Do they swim with their eyes closed?

Nearly every single time I am fishing, I have one surface within a few feet of my boat or kayak and every single time, they look and act like they are SHOCKED that there I am there.

[roadwarrior]

Just didn't expect to see such a good looking guy!

 

                                                      

[jbmaine]

It's been my experience that seeing turtles in a body of water is a sign of a healthy ecosystem. Seeing turtles has always meant waters with good fish in them, to us. No science to back that up, but 60+ years of observations.

[CrashVector]

13 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Do you use a snapping turtle? All the ones I catch are soft shell and not legal for harvest. And they bite really hard, even though people don’t call them snappers haha.

 

also I’ve seen someone clean a turtle, it took forever. My in-laws in Ohio fish for and eat snapping turtles quite often 

 

Most commonly used are red ear sliders, but snappers are good too.

[TnRiver46]

4 minutes ago, CrashVector said:

 

Most commonly used are red ear sliders, but snappers are good too.

I looked up the regulations, snapping turtle is the only one I can legally harvest in my state. I think I’ll stick to eating bass! Haha. Like @slonezpsaid, it’s a lot easier to peel a fish 

[MN Fisher]

6 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I looked up the regulations, snapping turtle is the only one I can legally harvest in my state. I think I’ll stick to eating bass! Haha. Like @slonezpsaid, it’s a lot easier to peel a fish 

Minnesota we can take snappers with a shell that's at least 12" from front to back from July 1 to April 30

Western Painted turtles that are between 4 and 5 1/2 inches in shell length are also legal all year round.

 

I haven't taken any....had turtle soup once - if I was starving and nothing else was available I'd eat it again...

[TnRiver46]

We also have the 12” regulation and a daily limit of 5, but can’t keep painted or anything except common snapper. . I haven’t caught a snapper in ages, but I catch soft shells all the darn time. They are quite the pest when catfishing. I’m going to get my in-laws to make me some soup one day, they catch big snapping turtles out of the maumee river and eat them 

[N Florida Mike]

It’s difficult to fish live bait for bass when there’s a lot of turtles around.

I once caught a big soft shell while fishing with a shiner. I went back in a few days and saw a lot of turtles hanging around. Caught another shiner , threw him out, and the cork immediately went under. But this time it turned out to be a 7 pound bass !

[Will Ketchum]

Once I had a few bass on a stringer while fishing from shore and since the water was clear I could see a snapper approaching, so I pulled the bass out of the water. I tried to chase the snapper away but he came back hissing at me. It happened more than once. He was persistent.

 

I can't say one way or another whether turtles affect bass fishing, but I like seeing any critter in the outdoors.

[Bankbeater]

I've had them bite Flukes and Senkos.  I feel a really good bite and then bring the bait in to discover a chunk missing out of it.

[Matt Hoo]

On 9/14/2022 at 10:27 AM, Choporoz said:

I fish in waters with lots of turtles.   I never noticed any correlation one way or another about the success of bass fishing around them.

 

  But....I do have a longstanding, nagging curiosity about turtles....

Do they swim with their eyes closed?

Nearly every single time I am fishing, I have one surface within a few feet of my boat or kayak and every single time, they look and act like they are SHOCKED that there I am there.

Think refraction.  Kind of like looking at a fish tank from a angle.  I have the same thing happen regularly.  Close enough that im sure their eyes are open.