People are too cruel

[sayn3ver]

I hit up a local late tonight after grabbing a bite to eat to work on my spinnerbait techniques. I moved around a bit with no success and right when I am about to leave i spot a piece of mono and a bobber tied to a railing off one of those cement platforms that jut out into the lake/pond. I go and tug on it and to my surprise i find a very large snapper turtle on the other end of the thing. Poor thing was hooked in the mouth and was tied to the damn railing. I tried coaxing him onto the bank with no luck so i got as close as i could and cut the line. It just makes me sad that someone would be so cruel to tie it up. I could see accidentally catching one but to tied it up and leave it is plain animal cruelty. (I know i know, the irony in a fisherman saying that but come on).

And what iced the cake was the 2 plastic walmart bags and leftover tackle wrappers left on the platform where i found the the turtle tied up.

[bassfisher02]

First of all, I dont see the irony in a fisherman talking about animal cruelty. nothing about sport fishing, or even fishing for dinner is cruel. Tieing up a snapper turtle to a rail IS cruel.

Now with that being said, thats just how some people are. They dont care about anything but themselves. The best you can do is exactly what you did.

[bassbooger]

That rig might have been set up by someone who didn't want to sit there and hold a rod in their hand. They may have tied it up in hopes of catching something on somewhat of trot, or limb line variation. I don't like it when people do it because you usually run into this type of issue.

I hung into one, one morning while bass fishing. The line was tied to a boat dock and when I pulled it up to get my crankbait off, there was a rattle trap tied to the end of it. Needless to say I trolled off with my crankbait and a free rattle trap just for the trouble that it caused.

[Rodman_Rob]

Originally Posted by bassbooger

That rig might have been set up by someone who didn't want to sit there and hold a rod in their hand. They may have tied it up in hopes of catching something on somewhat of trot, or limb line variation. I don't like it when people do it because you usually run into this type of issue.

I hung into one, one morning while bass fishing. The line was tied to a boat dock and when I pulled it up to get my crankbait off, there was a rattle trap tied to the end of it. Needless to say I trolled off with my crankbait and a free rattle trap just for the trouble that it caused.

yeah people set those up all the time. just bait a hook and tie to a tree limb. unfotunately they aren't always easy to spot and people will bait so many that they forget where all they tie them. now when you go down the river you can find line and hooks everywhere.

never heard of anybody using a fake bait on one, talk about dumb.

[bassfisher02]

Yeah I honestly doubt that the person who rigged the artificial on the end hade some kinda other intention, no way they thought it would catch anything...

We've set out trot lines quite a few times for catfish. We'll usually wander into backwaters, or areas out of the way of boat traffic, place 2 stakes about 50 feet or so apart, tie a rope from one to the other, with a jug threaded through the rope to keep it up, with fishing line attached to the rope and hooks at different intervals hanging from the rope. Add the bait, and come back and check up as much as possible. We'd usually get some nice cats, some apperently being nibbled on by gators. We havent done a trot line lately, and took down our other one.

[texasbasser]

I try to clean up every piece of trash I ever see on a lake or river, because I have also found dead birds, fish, and turtles dead from someone leaving some sort of trash. Personally I dont trot-line, it doesnt appeal to me at all to leave a hook out and pull in a fish by hand days later or whatever.

[bassfisher02]

I never much was into it either, my stepdad introduced me to the idea. Its more for food, you could get enough catfish to eat for a while. I dont even like catfish, again it was his deal, but i wasnt going to make him do it all by himself, plus we'd fish while we were out there.

[texasbasser]

Yea I know what you mean. I have a friend who has some land on the river, and he catches some cats up to 40 pounds some weekends. Dunno why he doesnt just hook a bluegill and throw it out there and enjoy the fight, but oh well his loss I guess

[JB]

the amount of people that actually depend on fish or turtle daily around here are few and far between, most just lazy enough to make it to the welfare office for assistance and food debit cards. Every now and then you run into someone that wants to eat fish or turtles and knows what they are doing, and do a selective harvest, and not wasting anything...I have no problem with that, fish are a natural recourse. We are just lucky enough to have most bass anglers catch and release. I'd say the other 10% of the fishermen around here stock up on crappie, walleye, and cats to eat on...catching a bass to them is too much work!