What should I have done?

[andybear]

Hi all,

At the outset of this post, if moderators feel inclined to strike this one out, I will understand......

A beautiful morning, had a nice lay in, and did not get out of bed 'till ten past four, had planned to be up and about much earlier. The wind and wave forecase for the Redcliffe area, had been looking as though, it would be workable, but the wind measurements went on the blink sometime yesterday, so there was some guesswork.

All went well, and I was on the water a little after sunrise, the morning was an absolute honey. Just a bit of a breeze, the water 26. 8, and I was feeling lucky!

I set off to the the area, where I have had some luck before, where i got some nice snapper last year. Trolling as usual a hard body lure, but there were no takers after half a dozen or so passes about the area.
I started to mess around with the GPS, ready to head off towards a place where some spotty mackeral sometime present themselves, and something grabbed the stationary lure, and started hauling off some serious line, not real fast, but with plenty of power. The fight was on, and I could tell I was getting the upper hand, any minute there will be colour......and then...it broke the surface, ....a bloody great turtle.

Oh no! what the hell can I do with this poor bastard? I would estimate that he would have weighed as much as me....but there again, I have never lifted a turtle off the ground. It submerged and that was the last I saw of it. The dilemma is....what now, what the hell can I do. If I struggle to bring it yak side, I still have no hope of getting the hook out ( I did not see where it was hooked when it surfaced) but I imagine the hook would be in its mouth being as it scoffed the lure as it floated, and was not jagged whilst trolling. I ended up cutting the line giving him as little as possible to tow around, and I just hope he can spit the hook. At least, I was not using trebles, I guess that improves his chances somewhat.

No fish for me this trip,
Cons. No fish
the turtle

Pros. Weather was great. My gear stood up to the load, without failing.

There it is..... cheers all Andybear

[Davey G]

a new pb?

maybe turtles are attracted to shiny pudding bowls?


I also hooked a turtle during our Whitsundays adventure last year. Only a small fella and he was foul-hooked by the front flipper on a soft plastic/small jighead. On my 4lb bream gear I tried to get him close to de-hook him but he made one final surge and ping...gone.

CAn only hope that the hooks rust out and drop off - nothing much else you can do

[bazzoo]

Andy mate i see your dilemma , thats a tough one but you did the only thing possible as your not going to subdue a great turtle beside tha yak to take the hook out , you would have no hope at all , just glad it wasnt a treble , hell probably digest some of it and shortly spit the rest out , there tough creatures .

[BIGKEV]

I think that you did the right thing. You would have virtually no chance of getting decent sized turtle yakside without risking injury to both yourself and the turtle, you're best option was to gain as much line as you could and cut it free, which is exactly what you did.

If it pops up on the news in the next couple of days with some greenie clutching a dead turtle with a lure in it's gob we'll just have to say that it was obviously a stinkboater as kayakers are conservationists by default.

Kev

[BubbleBass]

Andy,
Have wondered about catching a turtle out in the bay, lots around and large ones at that.Agree will all ,that whilst unfortunate, the safest and sensible thing is to do exactly what you did, get as much line back as possible and cut off hoping the hooks rot out soon enough and not affect it too much.
Having said all that Turtle soup is rather good............

Cheers BB (Jake)

[beefs]

Whether it's a big ole fish that busts me off, a shark I get to the boat and have to cut off, a bird or in this case a turtle - if something manages to grab my hook and become disconnected from the line, for whatever reason - I always feel better knowing that my hooks are barbless and will work their way out a lot quicker than barbed hooks or waiting for them to rust out.

In this case i don't think theres much more you could have done Andy, unless you were close to the beach and you tried to land it from shore rather than the yak?

[sunshiner]

Andy, if it makes you feel better, I think it most likely that the turtle probably blundered into your line and then foul hooked itself on the lure, probably in a flipper. So it is most unlikely that its eating equipment will be damaged. I've hooked turtles accidentally a couple of times and did what you did - the only reasonable course to take. Didn't realise you were such a sensitive chap!

[grinner]

andybear, looking at your avatar , is that a juvenille turtle sitting on your head ?

i think most marine creatures eat a variety of very sharp things (oysters, crushed up pipis , the barbs on other fish). remeber looking at the bottom of the tank at the brisbane boat/fishing show and there were lots of hooks ,so they obviously pass thru in many cases. even saw an xray of a toddler who had swallowed an open safety pin and that passed ok. i think mr turtle will be ok.

cheers pete

[wopfish]

You should have made soup !!!! And changed your hat to a new one

[Dodge]

Andy you did that could be expected mate

[ArWeTherYet]

Would be interesting to see how many of them are out there around Redcliffe. Out of all the places I've been I havent seen anywhere where they are so abundant.......and BIG! Where do they go to lay there eggs?....they seem to be there all year around.

I've only ever fowl hooked them with a lure and once I hooked one using live bait, but its very rare to hook one. When I was up at Burrem Heads there was a coffee rock drop off where the turtles took a liking to my Nuke Chook Gulps after hooking a second one I stopped fishing there......obviously the country turtles arent as smart a the city slicker turtles.

[Alster99]

Hi Andybear,

Maybe you should have just jumped from a helicopter and grabbed it to remove the hook like this bloke!...

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/glance/75906 ... board-11km

Seriously though, you did what you could there I think. Poor thing.

Cheers,

Al

[mcbigg]

I hope the turtle learnt its lesson to look more closely at its meal before it takes a bite.

Made for a great story anyways!

[Occy]

The only thing you did wrong my dear friend was to fail to take a picture.

[sliderman]

Great to See someone catch a turtle i have been using those gulp turtle back worms for quite some time now, good on most fish but still no turtle, now that i think about it i have not had any chicken on those nuclear chicken either i should ask Mr gulp for my money back Regards Sliderman