Beat Down by a Dinosaur 10/27/18

[sasquatch]

Hit up the new carp spot this morning, hoping to get a few fish to play. No luck, but after several hours soaking I decided to toss a bait close in where I saw some bubbles pop up now and then.

Before long, I noticed my line was moving to the right slowly. I grabbed the rod, line kept moving so I set the hook. Felt like I hooked a tree, but it came towards me slowly. Then it started to pulsate and head the other way. Slowly, but definitely not a tree.

I was able to gain some line and finally got my swivel in view. My rod tip was at water level, I was cupping the spool to keep from losing line, but I couldn't raise it any farther.

Finally I was able to lift just a few more inches and saw a tail a foot long and a clawed foot nearly the size of my hand.  Which quickly disappeared into the murky water and buried itself under the reeds.

I was freaked out. I never expected to see that. Neither did my shoreline neighbors who brought their net.  They handed it to me and I let go of the spool to try to net the beast. No dice. Back into the reeds.

Tried three or four more times to net it, but it wouldn't fit into the net. The net was 18-20 inches across and just wouldn't fit around. It just kept bouncing off the hard shell.

I finally broke off, never saw more than a tail, feet, claws, and some shell. Online pics of snapping turtles look right, but who knows.

It was pretty damn cool though.

[xjchad]

That's awesome!

[sasquatch]

That's awesome!

A picture would have been awesomer.

[Latimeria]

I used to catch them all the time. I totally would have jumped in to grab him. So cool!