Turtle On The Fly
By Rod Petersen
On a Thursday afternoon with some friends of mine, we set out to get some time in for fly fishing at a small pond near campus. The fish in this pond are not the biggest, but it is a fun break from school and work. Plus, it is right down the road, so it makes going to fish a relatively quick adventure if you get out of the office late.
We all rendezvous at the parking lot around five and walked down to the pond. Our little band got set up on the pond's edge and began casting top-water popping bugs and streamers at an underwater structure hoping to catch the evening bite. Not too long after the first cast was made one of us landed a small bass. As you probably know from fishing in groups, that first catch really gets everyone going. The excitement and drive to catch the next one got everyone tensed up.
It was here I decided to switch to a medium-sized, white streamer. I thought to myself “This is it; the bass are keyed in on minnows and this should set them off”. That next cast was a million dollars to me as I sailed that poor streamer out as far as I could. Landing it next to an underwater trench that the bass had been cruising on that evening. My streamer had hardly had a chance to sink to the bottom when my entire line went tight. There was no setting the hook, it was already fish on. I immediately picked my rod-tip up and began to fight the fish in. The line got tighter and took off from the trench out to the deeper water in the center of the pond. As I began to give it drag, I thought “WOW! This has to be the biggest fish in this pond”. Yet, there was no head shake on the end of the line. There also weren’t any abrupt runs that bass are known to commit to when hooked.
I started trying to work the fish closer to get a better look. My buddies, curious about what I had hooked, stopped fishing and began making their way over to me to see as well. As the line got closer a large black blob started moving in with the line. I couldn’t believe it. I had hooked a Redear Slider. “A freakin’ turtle?” I thought to myself, “On a streamer?” I did not know what to expect, but I knew I wanted my streamer back, even if I had to jump in after him. As the turtle got closer to the bank, he began digging himself into the mud to anchor down on my pull. This is when the turtle and I began having some choice words with each other. He’d hiss at me, and I would say something in a less kinder tone back. This was a relatively short conversation, that was until I could get one hand on him and the other on my pliers. At this point, the turtle was pissed at me because I had just ripped him from his home and was about to rob him of his meal. I mean I would be pretty mad too if I were him. I began muttering to the turtle and myself “One second bud, I’m goin’ need that streamer back.” Before I plucked the fly from the poor turtle's mouth and set him back into the pond. A little tired and with a hurt ego, the turtle turned around in the muddy water and waddled off into the depths. My friends and I sat there and laughed about it for a good minute until we got back to fishing. I have to say, that was definitely a first for me, a turtle on the fly.
