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Author Topic: Saw something strange this past weekend...  (Read 4246 times)

Fishermantim

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Saw something strange this past weekend...
« on: Sep 16, 2020, 10:06 AM »
I was fishing a local river (well, local by my standards) on Saturday and after a really fun day of fighting monster pickerel and some dink bass, I was paddling down river and saw something surface about 20-30 feet in front of me.

 

Now I know what swims in this river: Bass, pickerel, pike, carp, snapping turtles, beavers, muskrats and (heard about but not seen) otters.

 

Whatever this creature was, it was big, REAL BIG. It breached the surface, looking like when a whale or dolphin comes up for a breath of air, but only there was no showing of head or limbs. All that showed was a shiny dark gray object that moved like when a whale/dolphin does.

 

My only conclusion was a huge snapping turtle. Seeing that it's a muddy-bottom river, it's shell would be covered in mud which would account for the color.

What really impressed me was the size.

 

Based on my POV, the top shell I saw (from front to back) would have had to be somewhere around 3-4 feet long. The closest size comparison would be like a loggerhead turtle.

I mean, most adults could have ridden this thing!

 

I laugh now because when I'm kayak fishing this particular stretch of river I have turtles rise up to check out what I am constantly, and some of them are big ones too! 

Am I worried? No, because they are curious, not aggressive and I have no desire to screw with them anyway.

 

Hope you all have had the chance to get out and have your own outdoor adventures!
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Jethro

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Re: Saw something strange this past weekend...
« Reply #1 on: Sep 16, 2020, 01:08 PM »
Turtle or...


bogtrotter

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Re: Saw something strange this past weekend...
« Reply #2 on: Sep 16, 2020, 01:20 PM »
Or, if you were on Lake Champlain, it might have been "Champ."

CMD1987

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Re: Saw something strange this past weekend...
« Reply #3 on: Sep 16, 2020, 06:26 PM »
I saw a snapping turtle of similar size in the main body of Wachusett reservoir once. Had to be 3-4 feet across and covered in moss and algae. Very cool animals. And can get very big with a good food source

Raquettedacker

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Re: Saw something strange this past weekend...
« Reply #4 on: Sep 16, 2020, 07:01 PM »
3 to 4 feet... 8)
I agree with Jethro....   ;D

The common snapping turtle is a large turtle, ranging in size from 8 to 14 in (20-36 cm) with a record length of 19.3 in (49 cm). Their average weights range from 10 to 35 lbs (4.5 - 16 kg), with a record of 75 lbs (34 kg). Their color varies from tan to dark brown to almost black in some specimens. Common snapping turtles have long tails and necks and rough shells with three rows of carapace keels.

45-pound monster breaks old record by 13 pounds
PRATT -- On Oct. 6, two Haven men caught a new Kansas state record snapping turtle on the Arkansas river near their home town. The monster weighed 45 pounds and was 16 inches long. The previous largest Kansas common snapper was caught by Ian and John Bork on April 23, 1992, in Barton County. That specimen weighed 32 pounds. The world record for this species (Chelydra serpentina) is 86 pounds, 19 ˝ inches.
Sometimes we live no particular way but our own.....<br />Strangers stopping strangers just to shake there hand...<br />\"Dying is the easy part. Learning how to live is the hard part....\"

The Jigger

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Re: Saw something strange this past weekend...
« Reply #5 on: Sep 16, 2020, 09:46 PM »
Does this river run down to the ocean? Maybe a Sturgeon.

Raquettedacker

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Re: Saw something strange this past weekend...
« Reply #6 on: Sep 17, 2020, 06:23 AM »
Does this river run down to the ocean? Maybe a Sturgeon.

  Or a seal?
Sometimes we live no particular way but our own.....<br />Strangers stopping strangers just to shake there hand...<br />\"Dying is the easy part. Learning how to live is the hard part....\"

deerhunter

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Re: Saw something strange this past weekend...
« Reply #7 on: Sep 17, 2020, 08:12 AM »
back in the 70s my friend and I caught a snapper out of a pond in Charlton while fishing in a canoe. put in an old galvanized tub and it weighed 48 lbs. big one for sure.

lowaccord66

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Re: Saw something strange this past weekend...
« Reply #8 on: Sep 17, 2020, 10:11 AM »
Or, if you were on Lake Champlain, it might have been "Champ."

I've been looking....all I find is lakers!

Fishermantim

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Re: Saw something strange this past weekend...
« Reply #9 on: Sep 17, 2020, 11:49 AM »
  Or a seal?


Oddly enough that's (or a whale) was what it looked like when it surfaced. It didn't rise up like turtles do, but rather "porpoised" without showing head or limbs.
The surface was smooth, not anything like a snapping turtle shell.
If it was a turtle, but not a snapping turtle, it was a huge painted/box/bog turtle.

The river may reach the ocean, but sturgeons can't make it up, as could stripers, bull sharks or any ocean creature that can survive in fresh water.

I know there are some mammalian creatures that inhabit this river, but again it was too big to be a beaver, muskrat or otter.

Here's the dimensions , as best as I could gauge from where I was sitting: It would be roughly 24-30" wide and 3-4' long (front to back).

I WILL be back again to fish that river, but I won't be playing Ahab looking for the white whale.
"God is playing to an audience that's afraid to laugh" (George Burns from "Oh, GOD")

"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy!" - The Existential Blues

The Jigger

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Re: Saw something strange this past weekend...
« Reply #10 on: Sep 17, 2020, 09:33 PM »

Oddly enough that's (or a whale) was what it looked like when it surfaced. It didn't rise up like turtles do, but rather "porpoised" without showing head or limbs.
The surface was smooth, not anything like a snapping turtle shell.
If it was a turtle, but not a snapping turtle, it was a huge painted/box/bog turtle.

The river may reach the ocean, but sturgeons can't make it up, as could stripers, bull sharks or any ocean creature that can survive in fresh water.

I know there are some mammalian creatures that inhabit this river, but again it was too big to be a beaver, muskrat or otter.

Here's the dimensions , as best as I could gauge from where I was sitting: It would be roughly 24-30" wide and 3-4' long (front to back).

I WILL be back again to fish that river, but I won't be playing Ahab looking for the white whale.


There was a sturgeon caught  in the CT river above the Turner falls dam and just below the Vernon Dam in Vermont back in 2017. How did it get above  the Turner falls dam?
 I've seen them before on the Merrimack River up to the Lawrence Dam. Could small ones have gotten above the Dam? Years ago they were even in the Concord river. A female can live up to 150 years. That is exceptional.

taxid

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Re: Saw something strange this past weekend...
« Reply #11 on: Sep 17, 2020, 11:59 PM »
Reefer is legal in Mass right?  ;D

Sorry could't resist!  ;)
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stripernut

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Re: Saw something strange this past weekend...
« Reply #12 on: Sep 18, 2020, 05:35 AM »
I once saw a beaver that was an easy 90+ lbs (Quabbin). I saw it out of the water and back then I was helping a trapper skin them so I had sizing down pretty good. Just a thought that it might be some rare overgrown specimen... Huge otter or the like. Just a thought.

taxid

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Re: Saw something strange this past weekend...
« Reply #13 on: Sep 18, 2020, 07:17 AM »
I once saw a beaver that was an easy 90+ lbs (Quabbin). I saw it out of the water and back then I was helping a trapper skin them so I had sizing down pretty good. Just a thought that it might be some rare overgrown specimen... Huge otter or the like. Just a thought.

I've had beavers that were an easy 70 pounds in my freezer.
“The trouble with quotes on the Internet is you never know if they are genuine.” —Abraham Lincoln

mcully

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Re: Saw something strange this past weekend...
« Reply #14 on: Sep 18, 2020, 08:49 AM »
school of carp or other school pushing water like bluefin do maybe
Sad we will never really know- Need Leonard Nimoy to do "In Search Of"

 



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