Stunned Drew Hammonds couldn’t believe his luck when he thought he caught a massive fish, until he looked closer and saw dinosaur-like spikes on its back.
Thinking it was a vicious crocodile, the flabbergasted fisherman dropped his rod and got ready to run for his life.
It was only when he saw the creature’s smaller body frame and legs emerge out of the water, that he realised he had caught hold of a snapping turtle which usually only lives 3,000 miles away.
Satellite engineer Mr Hammonds, 37, caught the turtle early last Tuesday morning while fishing with friends at Earlswood Lake near Birmingham said: ‘I only went fishing for carp.
‘I thought I’d caught a big one when my rod started to bend.
‘I had put that much bait on the end, I had to catch something. Then I spotted a big shell coming out of the water, with spikes on its back.
‘My first instinct was to run, as I thought it was a crocodile or an alligator. I dropped my rod and ran, then I turned back and realised it was a turtle.
‘I don’t think I was too far wrong because they are related.
‘I was totally shocked and couldn’t believe it. It’s not every day that you spot a turtle on the end of your fishing rod.
‘I was with four of my friends and they were just as stunned. It ripped through my net and my friends net.’
Satellite engineer Mr Hammonds, 37, caught the turtle early last Tuesday morning while fishing with friends at Earlswood Lake near Birmingham said: ‘I only went fishing for carp.
‘I thought I’d caught a big one when my rod started to bend.
‘I had put that much bait on the end, I had to catch something. Then I spotted a big shell coming out of the water, with spikes on its back.
‘My first instinct was to run, as I thought it was a crocodile or an alligator. I dropped my rod and ran, then I turned back and realised it was a turtle.
‘I don’t think I was too far wrong because they are related.
‘I was totally shocked and couldn’t believe it. It’s not every day that you spot a turtle on the end of your fishing rod.
‘I was with four of my friends and they were just as stunned. It ripped through my net and my friends net.’
Worried that the hapless turtle had a hook in his mouth, Mr Hammonds and his three friends tried to release it, until it tried to snap their hands off.
‘We had to get close to it, because it had a hook in its lower jaw. It kept snapping at me so I had to be careful,’ added Mr Hammonds, of Walsall, West Midlands.
‘In the end I used metal forceps to cut through the hook. I had to do it quickly, because it was going for my hand. Luckily it just turned away.
‘It was so aggressive. Half of the hook would still be in its mouth.
‘I was with a bunch of people and some of them didn’t want me to put it back in the wild, but it was to aggressive and hard to control, there was not much else I could have done.
‘Apparently it eats a lot of fish, so that would affect further fishing there. But I reckon it’s been there for years.
‘It’s not something you expect to see when you go fishing, I was shocked but it was exciting to see.
‘I’ve never heard of anyone else catching them on the end of their line, and I’ve been fishing for years.’
‘We had to get close to it, because it had a hook in its lower jaw. It kept snapping at me so I had to be careful,’ added Mr Hammonds, of Walsall, West Midlands.
‘In the end I used metal forceps to cut through the hook. I had to do it quickly, because it was going for my hand. Luckily it just turned away.
‘It was so aggressive. Half of the hook would still be in its mouth.
‘I was with a bunch of people and some of them didn’t want me to put it back in the wild, but it was to aggressive and hard to control, there was not much else I could have done.
‘Apparently it eats a lot of fish, so that would affect further fishing there. But I reckon it’s been there for years.
‘It’s not something you expect to see when you go fishing, I was shocked but it was exciting to see.
‘I’ve never heard of anyone else catching them on the end of their line, and I’ve been fishing for years.’
Turtle specialist Paul Eversfield identified the turtle as an Alligator Snapping turtle (Macroclemys temminckii).
Mr Eversfield, from the British Chelonia Society, confirmed the turtles are native of the southern U.S. states and believes it must have been imported as a hatchling turtle for a hobbyist here in the UK.
‘They are potentially the largest freshwater turtles in the world with record size of over 100Kg,’ he said.
‘As such, they represent the top predator in their natural environment and are capable of eating large fish and water fowl. Their natural diet is fish, crayfish, and smaller turtles.
‘Having been around, largely unchanged for nearly 200 million years, there survival strategy obviously works very well.
‘That said, they would not pose much of a threat to humans unless someone was foolish enough to handle it incorrectly.
‘Their very powerful jaws are easily capable of severing a finger or hand.
Mr Eversfield, from the British Chelonia Society, confirmed the turtles are native of the southern U.S. states and believes it must have been imported as a hatchling turtle for a hobbyist here in the UK.
‘They are potentially the largest freshwater turtles in the world with record size of over 100Kg,’ he said.
‘As such, they represent the top predator in their natural environment and are capable of eating large fish and water fowl. Their natural diet is fish, crayfish, and smaller turtles.
‘Having been around, largely unchanged for nearly 200 million years, there survival strategy obviously works very well.
‘That said, they would not pose much of a threat to humans unless someone was foolish enough to handle it incorrectly.
‘Their very powerful jaws are easily capable of severing a finger or hand.
‘Left alone, it would sit very secretively on the lake floor and just ambush its natural prey, fish.
‘The tongue has a lure like appendage that wiggles attracting unwary fish into its powerful scissor-like jaws.
‘I suspect that this animal was released by a private keeper or somebody that had stolen it from a collection, when they realised that it was just too big to be contained.’
Mr Hammonds added: ‘In the past they have closed and drained this pool following sightings of a mysterious creature - which people thought was an alligator or a crocodile - maybe the whole time it was this that they had been seeing.
‘At the time experts were saying no reptile could survive in that.
‘It was hissing and spitting when we caught it - it was really vicious, you couldn’t go anywhere near it without it going for you and it was really strong - we had to pin it down with all our might.
‘It propelled itself and took off when we threw it back in.’
Alligator snappers have been known to kill alligator and is the largest freshwater turtle in North America.
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