Lunch Break Keeps Getting Weirder

[LOAH]

Another day, another lunch break. As many of you know, I fish strange places (at least I get strange looks from passers-by) on my lunch breaks and end up with some surprising catches.

This one may take the cake though. Took a Gulp! leech.

I have to laugh.
[signature]

[Flounder70]

Cool turtle. I dont see many in Utah. If any. Haha.
[signature]

[Hazzy_Hazbourne]

That's awesome! I get annoyed at times pulling in crawdads while fishing but a turtle makes for a pretty memorable trip. You should have taken some measurements and submitted a form for the C&R record. []
[signature]

[albinotrout]

Yes strange indeed. New personal best I would say?
[signature]

[Therapist]

Invasive species!! Someones pet turtle all grown up!!

[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Aren't you ashamed? Fishing in that little girl's backyard goldfish pond...and keeping her pet turtle too. That's a new low.

Did he put up a good battle or just "turn turtle"?
[/#0000FF]
[signature]

[TopH2O]

You are assuming he let it go. It could be tonight's dinner.
[signature]

[retch_sweeney]

I got recipes.
[signature]

[Fishman887]

I too caught a turtle on a senko in Florida on a spring break trip. Definitely catches you off gaurd. That week I also caught a six foot black water snake and something that cut my line with its teeth (line jumped, i set the hook and there was zero resistance. Line was straight cut, no curls suggesting a knot that slipped)
[signature]

[LOAH]

That little girl was giving me the stink eye so I sure showed her![]


I thought it would fight harder, but it was more of a dead weight.

Like usual at that spot, I was pitching for bass, didn't find any so I moved around a bit and found a bunch of carp that have sometimes shown interest in the leech. They tend to spook if it moves more than just a slight wiggle on the bottom, so gave it some light action and then the turtle came into view.

Basically, I just let the leech rest on the bottom at that point and watched as the turtle inspected it, then started chomping at it. That was surprising enough, and I didn't think it had much of it in its mouth when it started scooting off with it.

Not wanting to cause a lot of harm to it, it slowly lifted the rod tip to a good arc and the turtle was being pulled. I figured that the leech would have just pulled off the jig.

Naturally, I got my camera out and then reached down to help it out of the water. The hook had actually grabbed it right behind the head, in one of the neck folds.

We all know how turtles like to tuck their heads under their shells...

Anyhow, I eventually got the hook free and thankfully didn't see any blood. Even though it's not supposed to be there, I still felt bad for it and didn't want to hurt it.

It seemed to observe me with some degree of intelligence. It was a pretty neat experience. A new respect for turtles has been found from this.[]
[signature]

[humpy]

Very cool ! I've caught frogs fly fishing before, that's fun. That Little Ninja is awesome! I would let it go too.

humpy
[signature]

[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Turtles can be a common catch in many waters around the country. They eat fish and if you are soaking bait you often get turtle inquiries. Some you miss and tell stories of big cats that got away. But if you hang a big snapper you have to be careful who catches who.

Down in Arizona I caught several soft shell turtles. They have long necks and swim well. Lots of folks fishing for sunfish below a bobber get a wild surprise from a hungry soft shell.

Glad you can cross that one off your fish bucket list. Next...an alligator?
[/#0000FF]
[signature]

[JustJim]

[#0000ff]"Glad you can cross that one off your fish bucket list. Next...an alligator?"[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [inline "Caimen release.jpg"]
[/#0000ff]
Been there, done that!
[#0000ff]
[/#0000ff]
[signature]

[cpierce]

Cool catch! They are native to the region.

I've seen them when fishing, but never caught one myself. FlyGoddess has caught them out of the Jordan before.
[signature]

[richyd4u]

This reminds me of when we lived in Kentucky and would frequently hook into snapping turtles and big bull frogs...pain in the arse. Depending on the size of the snapper, they would generally bust you off...but those big bull frogs were worth keeping (frog legs)!

Haha...cool catch!

I've also hooked into a few water snakes here in UT while fly fishing our rivers. And perhaps the strangest day I've ever had was fly fishing the lower provo and hooking into not one...but TWO stinking muskrats in the same day! They would swim to the bank and take off on land until your line snaps! LOL! Crazy day.
[signature]

[albinotrout]

I caught a duck once as a kid fishing a farm pond.
[signature]