Testing trout tackle on turtles

Yesterday, while doing a trout recon, my travels from the inland haunts eventually ended about two miles offshore of Homosassa River. While chuckin' & windin', I couldn't help but notice the abundance of large turtles that were surfacing and if close to the boat, immediately dive-bomb in alarm:yikes Started picking up under-sized sea bass, lizardfish, large ladyfish and an occasional trout. About 45 minutes later, I got a tap and set the hook to a Daytona 500 contender. At first I thought Cobia(a little early), Ray, or Tarpon(early) were the unsociable, unseen, unhappy quarry. A bullride run and gun(a la Cobia/Tarpon on trout gear) of about 45 minutes on 10 lb. Power Pro braid, yielded the photos down below. He was left armpit(flipper) foul hooked with a 3/0 black-nickel Sickle hook on a 1/8 oz jighead. What a test, very similar to Cobia/Tarpon with unsuited tackle. At first I thought these turtles were Loggerhead leatherbacks but research showed them to be endangered Green Sea turtles. This one I estimated to be around 40 lbs. and the next one I hooked 15 minutes later was twice the size also foul-hooked. He reared his head about 60 yards from the boat after his 1st getaway and it looked like a 5" black PVC pipe. I broke the line went back shoreward and stumbled into the motherload of trout almost one per cast or last minute leaping at lure boatside! However, only 3 made the limit up to 16" but almost 3 hours of non-stop action! Attachment 334936Attachment 334937Attachment 334938Attachment 334939Attachment 334940:woohoo

u2s