fishing for leatherback turtles

With most of the sharks and tuna being overfished, the next best thing in the sea is large turtles. They taste just like chicken. The best part is that it is a total rush yanking one of these beasts in. we caught this one about 2 miles from block island, RI on 10-18-07 on a red plastic balloon. Turtles are pretty easy to catch, you just put a jelly fish on a hook and suspend it in the water. Sometimes when we are feeling sporty, we go with artificals and jig a plastic bag filled with water, looks like the real thing you know. so anyway, we were really just fishing for tuna and the the turtle came up and got hooked in a balloon holding up the bait. He popped his head up and was starting at the balloon for a minute until he saw us, then he took off. Unforutnatly, when he took off, he got tangled in teh line and kept pulling it until he was hooked. We pulled him in and resolved the issue which meant snapping the line as the attempt at unhooking was just taking to long. Later in teh day, we looked under the boat, there were millions of little translucent jellyfish about 1" long that were packed in tightly all along the area. You would have never noticed them unless your face was about a foot away as they were so clear and small. It was no wonder he was there so late in the year. anyway, there is a story for you couch potatoes..

Channel: Pets & Animals
Uploaded: November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am
Author: jimmyinCT

Length: 00:38
Rating: 3.00
Views: 1276

Tags: and  back  fishing  leather  leatherback  turtle  

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