Skitter Trifecta... sort of

[qbert]

Due to my skitter prop success the other day, I decided to go topwater fishing today. On about my fifth cast with my skitter prop(07 limefrog) I caught a decent bass on it.

About 10 min. later I had what appeared to be a pretty nice size bass blow up on my skitter walk(08 blk/chartreuse), but miss. That was my first ever hit on a SW, so I was kind of excited even though I missed him.

A little later I had a small bass chase it, but it seemed just a little too big for him. I had a skitter pop(07 frog) on my other rod, which got him on the first try. Now all I needed was to get one on my skitter walk and I had all 3 skitters covered.

I threw it right in front of this log, retrieving against the current, which made it move a much shorter distance towards me with each twitch. Suddenly something came from under the log and smashed it!! Too bad it wasn't a fish!!!

I had a monster snapping turtle with my only SW hanging out of his mouth!! And I was using 6lb test so I figured my lure for a goner!! I pulled him towards me slow as I could, not really sure what I was going to do anyway. Then I remembered a previous time when a snapper I hooked, actually took the lure out himself.

So once I got him to about 15ft away from me, I reached my rod out towards him, letting the line go slack for the first time. He proceeded to reach right into his mouth, pop that thing out and toss it two feet closer to me!!

After that I gave up on my skitter trifecta, took my toys and went home!!!

[fishing_in_israel]

May 24, 2010 18:51:05 GMT -4 qbert said:

Due to my skitter prop success the other day, I decided to go topwater fishing today. On about my fifth cast with my skitter prop(07 limefrog) I caught a decent bass on it.

About 10 min. later I had what appeared to be a pretty nice size bass blow up on my skitter walk(08 blk/chartreuse), but miss. That was my first ever hit on a SW, so I was kind of excited even though I missed him.

A little later I had a small bass chase it, but it seemed just a little too big for him. I had a skitter pop(07 frog) on my other rod, which got him on the first try. Now all I needed was to get one on my skitter walk and I had all 3 skitters covered.

I threw it right in front of this log, retrieving against the current, which made it move a much shorter distance towards me with each twitch. Suddenly something came from under the log and smashed it!! Too bad it wasn't a fish!!!

I had a monster snapping turtle with my only SW hanging out of his mouth!! And I was using 6lb test so I figured my lure for a goner!! I pulled him towards me slow as I could, not really sure what I was going to do anyway. Then I remembered a previous time when a snapper I hooked, actually took the lure out himself.

So once I got him to about 15ft away from me, I reached my rod out towards him, letting the line go slack for the first time. He proceeded to reach right into his mouth, pop that thing out and toss it two feet closer to me!!

After that I gave up on my skitter trifecta, took my toys and went home!!!

Wow! I'm glad for you that he managed toss the SW himself as I don't think that I would have liked to be in your shoes trying to get a lure out of one of those thing's mouths - they are chompers for sure
How was the SW looking afterwards?

[qbert]

It was no worse for wear!! Definitely lucked out on that one!!
Those things are no joke though. when i was young I caught one and stuck a broomstick in front of his mouth and wham!!! Took that broomstick down to a foot long about three inches at a time!!!

[catfreak]

They're quicker than you would think too. I don't know what kind of snapper he was, but the snappers up here in Minnesota will chase ya sometimes and they're pretty fast for a turtle. lol. At least they aren't those alligator snappers from down south. Those things are really nasty looking.

[qbert]

I think it was just a regular snapping turtle, not an alligator snapper, but either way at that size my hand wasn't going anywhere near his mouth!!

[bluefishbuster]

One time when I heard a big splash on the surface of a small pond and saw a nice swirl, I casted a Shallow Shad Rap. Felt a hard tug and then it snapped. Saw a huge snapping turtle pop its head and face up out of the water with the lure in its mouth.