Removing hooks from turtles...

[BadKarma42]

Aside from "very carefully," any suggestions on how to remove a hook from a turtle that tried to eat your lure?

[Bass XL]

I don't like messing with turtles at all. If I'm fishing a t-rig, I'll just cut the line above the hook. If it's an actual lure like a crankbait...well, it will all depend how much I like that lure.  

[atropine]

The easiest way for me is to cut the hook in half with wire cutters or something, then just slide the hook out. You'll have to your sacrifice your hook, but it hurts the turtle way less than trying to just yank it out.

I guess you could also try crushing the barbs down and see if that makes it easier to slide the hook out.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

You are becoming very proficient at catching things that dont earn us money..... :  LOL

[roadwarrior]

Here's an easy trick that will prevent you from being bitten:

Find a stick and mess with the turtle until he bites it, he won't let go.

Then remove the hook. This is not usually necessary if the hook is in the rear feet, but should be used anytime you are working up front.

8-)

[SnowBass23]

I'm a fan of the 'cut the hook and remove it' line of thinking.  Since all my turtles so far have been while bream fishing I have yet to deal with a treble hook.  On one of the lakes we frequent the turtles are notorious for grabbing a hook with cricket or worm.  After a few of them when I tried to pull the hook out like you would a fish, the hook stayed in and just bent and flerxed around the pliers.  So now I cut 'em in half.  Feels safer for the turtle and I can eat the cost of a cheap bream hook now and then.

[muskyxl]

Man, I am freaked out by snappers!!! When I was a child fishing a river bank, I had a enormous snapper come out of the water beside me with his mouth open... not a big fan!

[=Matt 5.0=]

You mean like this? Thought I had the state record bass......

[weknowhowtolive]

Ahahaha...wow. Nice catch! Thats a big turtle!

I've fished lakes with huge amounts of turtles at all depths and never hooked one. They usually run as soon as they see the splash of the lure or the boat gets too close.

[SimonDM17]

Use the stick for snappers.  If you don't have a stick, toss a sweatshirt or something over its head, yank out the lure (assuming it's snagged, not in the mouth), pull of the sweatshirt, and back away.  Hook removers are a plus.

If you caught a snapper in the mouth, the only thing I can think of would be getting it to take a stick and then trying to cut the hook...

[The_Natural]

You mean like this? Thought I had the state record bass......

Wow dude...that is a large turtle fo sho.  It would be quite an event to try and remove a hook from his lip!  The alligator snapping turtles will hiss at you like crazy which isn't a lot of help.

[rockstar17]

i wouldn't remove that hook if i was you look what it does to the fish

[BadKarma42]

Thanks for the advice.  I didn't have a snag.  This was the second time I have "caught" a turtle.  

This time I was working a frog through some slop and the "fish" exploded on it.  I set the hook and the rod doubled over.  I figured I had a nice one, or a 1 lb. fish with 4 lbs. of grass.

Anyway, it was a turtle.  Out of the two hooks on the frog, one was missing and the other one's hookeye was snapped in half.

Previously I caught one on a carolina rig on a big worm.

[bruzzer27]

in my experiences with the lure in the turtles mouth, there isnt to much i could or anyone really could do cept cut the line because you cant do that stick trick because it is in its mouth and you cant put somthing over its head because you need to get at its mouth so you have to cut it or risk getting bitten which i really dont recommend

[GatorBK]

This one swallowed a 9/0 stump hook meant for a gator . It may be the world record for the Osceola common snapping turtle . There was no removing it