Another Great Day of Fishing....Not!

  My friend, Darlene, returned to the Bayou for yet another day of fishing.  Being a teacher, she was on Spring Break this past week and wanted as much "Fishing Therapy" as she could get. We have been doing relatively well and have caught a good many red drums, trout and croakers.  Of course, we caught our fair share of gafftopsails, catfish and other "trash" fish.  We never complain, though, since we both love to fish and it sure beats staining flooring boards.  She and I can sit for hours with a rod and reel in hand.

  Today, our fishing experience was just that...an experience.  First, the weather did not cooperate.  It was heavily overcast and COLD!!  The north wind proved to be quite icy over the water.  Then, we had a bird steal our bait.  The juvenile Great Blue Heron that has been begging handouts has taken to stealing as of late.  While we were not watching, that rascal emptied our bait bucket of all the little, live mullet except for one tiny one.  There is not much fishing going to happen without bait! I had to throw the net to catch more bait which was quite scarce due to the inclement weather.  I did, however, replenish our stash but nary a fish bit.  We did, however, make a couple of catches.

  About mid afternoon, Darlene said she had a "bite".  Sure enough, her line was being pulled out from the reel.  She jerked back only to say that it was weird.  Yep, a great description.  Instead of a bite, she had something rather different.  A snapping turtle had become tangled in her line.  It took a bit of doing but we finally got the critter untangled without losing a finger in the process.  My catch was just as bad, if not worse.  I really did catch a snapping turtle. That goofy critter ate my mullet...hook and all!  Reeling in a huge snapping turtle is not the easiest thing to do.  Those things weigh a ton!  It felt like I was hauling in a log.  

  The hook was actually embedded in the turtle's tongue but there was no way that I was going to stick my hands in that mouth to unhook it.  Knowing that we use a style of hook that is fast-rusting, I cut the line.  The large turtle slid back into the water.  I am sure that he will have a sore mouth for a few days but, after that, he should be fine.  He just needs to learn to stay away from my fishing line!  Oh, the things that we catch here on the Bayou!