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Turtles steal baits

6K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  Flathead Tyrant 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi guys,
How do you prevent bait stealing by turtles when you fish cats from the bank. I’ve always had this problem when I fished in my shallow “home” creek if I used shad or carp cuts. I even stopped fishing there because of this turtle robbery. But, it seems to me, I have found one solution - the usage of nightcrawlers instead of fish baits. It looks that turtles in my creek do not like very much these worms while blue cats hit nightcrawlers very good. Also, I can not exclude that searching nightcrawlers on the bottom is more difficult for turtles compared to cats. What is your opinion?
 
#5 ·
In my limited experience with turtles I've found garlic can really put them off. If I find the turtles are especially bad one day I will mix garlic in with my chicken liver, hot dogs, or whatever else I'm using and usually there is a dramatic decrease in turtles stealing the bait. I have only had problems with turtles in a small lake/pond scenario fishing for channels though so this may not work on rivers... another thing is to make as little disturbance on the cast as possible... smaller baits and smaller wieghts. In the lake I fish the turtles have gotten wise and keep their eyes peeled for splashes to indicate a fresh bait being cast out.

Like I said before this may not be applicable to larger body's of water but it worked well for me...
 
#7 ·
If you in a farm pond stink bait in the number 1 thing I have found to catch turtles. Use a float then they see it and go down and get a mouth full of small treble hook. Reel em in and when when ya think ya got em all out load in the truck and take em away. The catfish bait at Walmart in the bag that’s the little balls works good for me. I dispise turtles and gar
 
#10 ·
I fish some areas that are heavily infested with turtles. I did a little experiment a number of years ago using a bottom rig (the turtles would clean me out), then switching to a dropper loop rig. Regardless of the bait I used (mostly chunk...shad, bluegill, carp, and drum), the dropper loop rig sure helped out. Supposedly (and I am not a biologist), the turtles swimming abilities (the ability to hold a position at any given depth) is hindered because they cannot breath under water...they float well, they can hold onto the bottom well, but they have a heck of a time snatching suspended bait. Another good point with the dropper loop rig is better presentation of the bait to the fish...keeps the bait a bit above the muddy or sandy surfaces (with a bottom rig I have pulled bait in the was covered in mud which indicated to me that the current was pushing mud over the bait)....also I have many less snags with the dropper loop rig. Anyway, I do get bait stolen from time to time, but the dropper loop rig has lessened that to a large degree.....and, the catfish dont seem to mind.
 
#12 ·
I use a leader board to pre-tie my leaders and I vary the length of drop for different conditions. If I am going to fish shallow I use a short drop...about 3" and if I am fishing deep water I might go as long as 8" or so....also, the angle of the rod in the holder can be a factor as well. I rigged up a "depth float" and I always check the water depth where I am fishing and that kind of tells me what length dropper I need to use (also multiple casts of the depth float at different distances gives me a "lay of the land" so to speak) .....but, if I dont have many turtles , and, dont have to contend with currents, snags, etc, then I normally just use a bottom rig.
 
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