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Had an interesting morning of fishing lads. Went to my usual pond full of common carp and black bullheads. The fishing was pretty good, got 5 of each.
The most interesting subject was this guy, small common carp with what I believe you would call his ‘Gill plate’ missing. He came in very gently so I’m sure that damage wasn’t caused by me catching him.. what would of done that? Did something get him while he was just a little guy?? Thats all I can think.
There are snappers in the pond and I’ve caught a few fish with odd looking chunks out of their tails and I’ve been wondering if the snappers have been biting the fish.
Speaking of snapping turtles.. I had the misfortune of foul-hooking one today. I realized i snagged something whilst reeling in, so I stopped because I thought it would be a fish.. no pull, just dead weight.. heavy dead weight. Figured it was a branch or something.. got it close to shore and to my horror I realized it was a big snapping turtle. Honestly did not know what to in the situation, I was by myself and I’m not the most experienced fisherman. I decided I’d try to beach him and remove the hook from his foot, as soon as he got pulled to the surface of the water he would dart back to the bottom and sit down there. After a few attempts it seemed like I was doing more harm them good, I tried to net him off the bottom but this just caused him to thrash around, and again I figured I was only making it worse. I cut the line as close to the turtle as I could.. feels bad man.
