Unbelievable PB in LBC

[fishshep]

Met up with "Imericle"/ Jeremy at the "Ninga" spot only to see him catch a

couple of good one,s before he had to go to work http://www.scsurffishing.com/forums/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif I was not even getting

any bites !!! http://www.scsurffishing.com/forums/images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif Decided to go to an adjacent area where I knew they

were going to kick me out, BUT !!! having gone there before real early, I

knew this one little spot was holding some Humungus Bass !!! Caught this

one just fifthteen minutes before the Guard asked me to leave http://www.scsurffishing.com/forums/images/smiles/icon_lol.gif http://www.scsurffishing.com/forums/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff109/dshepard_2007/dshepard_2007044/fishing290_zpsa5d57274.jpg (http://s240.photobucket.com/user/dshepard_2007/media/dshepard_2007044/fishing290_zpsa5d57274.jpg.html)

NOW http://www.scsurffishing.com/forums/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif At another LBC area, I was throwing a new LC, and

thought I hooked into a log or something http://www.scsurffishing.com/forums/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif http://www.scsurffishing.com/forums/images/smiles/icon_lol.gif After a few

cranks, this thing takes off swimming down the beach !!!! Could not figure

what the heck this thing is ? No head shakes, just one strong consistant


pull http://www.scsurffishing.com/forums/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif With 12lb Mono, let of the drag, and just let it swim for about fifty

yards, untill my spool had gone down to about half full, so then decided

to start reeling him in !!! Took about 20- minutes, but finally got him in

and that bugger was heavy !!! http://www.scsurffishing.com/forums/images/smiles/icon_lol.gif Poor thing had 30-50 lb. line

around his neck, so I cut all that stuff off and some lady took some pics

of the C&R.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff109/dshepard_2007/dshepard_2007044/fishing296_zps1c6a30a7.jpg (http://s240.photobucket.com/user/dshepard_2007/media/dshepard_2007044/fishing296_zps1c6a30a7.jpg.html)

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff109/dshepard_2007/dshepard_2007044/fishing291_zps428a6fc9.jpg (http://s240.photobucket.com/user/dshepard_2007/media/dshepard_2007044/fishing291_zps428a6fc9.jpg.html)

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff109/dshepard_2007/dshepard_2007044/fishing294_zps5ab5befd.jpg (http://s240.photobucket.com/user/dshepard_2007/media/dshepard_2007044/fishing294_zps5ab5befd.jpg.html)

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff109/dshepard_2007/dshepard_2007044/fishing292_zps389ceae6.jpg (http://s240.photobucket.com/user/dshepard_2007/media/dshepard_2007044/fishing292_zps389ceae6.jpg.html)

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff109/dshepard_2007/dshepard_2007044/fishing295_zpsa0682ac4.jpg (http://s240.photobucket.com/user/dshepard_2007/media/dshepard_2007044/fishing295_zpsa0682ac4.jpg.html)

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff109/dshepard_2007/dshepard_2007044/fishing297_zpse3f41386.jpg (http://s240.photobucket.com/user/dshepard_2007/media/dshepard_2007044/fishing297_zpse3f41386.jpg.html)

[ErikAllen17]

What a bitchin' find!!! Don't see that every day... so glad he made it ok. Mucho karma points for you.

[GhettoBasster]

Wow!! That's the fish story of a lifetime. Great job on helping that poor guy out. I didn't know we had turtles around here anymore. Nice Cali too!

[DockRat]

Wow!! That's the fish story of a lifetime.

X2 Mid winter turtle. OMG. Hope it doesn't get hit by a boat and makes open sea.
Awesome Daniel....

[marzocchi]

Very cool. There are tons of jellyfish for him to feed on right now. Might be the reason why he is out there. Even saw one in the SMB.

Once in a lifetime Op for you to catch/save/release/touch a wild sea turtle in southern california.

[Stumpknocker]

Awesome! You're a lucky guy to catch and liberate a sea turtle in LA.

[murrieta angler]

Wow Daniel!!! :EyePop:
That is one rare catch Bro!
I'm so glad it was you, and not some person who might have thrown it into his car...:Twisted:
I do believe that is the "First Ever" caught turtle, from shore, with a rod/reel, on any web site...:Big Grin:
That calico is a chunky lil guy as well.
Happy New Years,
Robert
<><

[DockRat]

Was looking for vids of local turtles. Found one. Lots of Calicos too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4RaaFqvN8E

[Ifishtoolittle]

Incredible is all I can say! WTG on saving the poor guy.

At first I thought your Calico was the PB. lol

[murrieta angler]

Was looking for vids of local turtles. Found one. Lots of Calicos too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4RaaFqvN8E

There used to be a huge, 25-30 pound Sheepshead, that used to live over in front of Avalon.
Robert
<><

[DockRat]

This is pretty cool. Turtles were once native to the area. Check out the pic at the link.

Sea Turtle Hatchling: Palos Verdes Baby
This 15-million-year-old baby was found in the deep water sediments that now form the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

http://objectofaffection.nhm.org/index.php?action=permalink&id_product=183

[DockRat]

I've heard of Turtles living in the warm water channel that comes from the Edison now AES power plant cooling water at PCH and LB/Seal Beach border.
Some thought that mid winter Wahoo caught in LB a couple years ago came out of that channel. Maybe the turtle came from there ?
DR

Found this;

Sea turtle habitat

The prevalence of sea turtles, however, mostly comes from the fact that the water at the mouth of the San Gabriel River is kept warm all year long "artificially" by the AES and Haynes power plants, a fact that the Land Trust states environmentalists remain concerned about due to its effect on native sea life.
"It is a little known fact that, due to the warm water discharged by the AES and Haynes power plants, a portion of the river has been attracting green sea turtles," the Land Trust states. "At the same time we are apprehensive about the effect of the artificially warm water on native sea life, we cannot help but be excited that these wonderful sea turtles have decided to take up residence in our local wetlands."

http://seanbelk.blogspot.com/2013/05/sea-turtle-trekkies-to-tour-san-gabriel.html

Another story below;

Turtles at new frontier
The endangered animals normally spend their lives at sea, but one colony has settled in the San Gabriel River -- near a power plant.
August 30, 2008|Louis Sahagun | Times Staff Writer

In the foamy chop of the warm-water discharge flowing into the San Gabriel River from a Long Beach power plant, a green sea turtle, wide as a manhole cover, materialized Friday just a few yards from shore.

A few minutes later, an even larger sea turtle surfaced in the murky water near the plant's thicket of steel scaffolding, steam vents and transmission lines.



Green sea turtles usually have tropical haunts -- teeming coral reefs or white sandy beaches where they lay eggs -- but these chunky titans live more than a mile upstream in one of Southern California's most ecologically degraded rivers.

Little is known about the colony of at least six urban sea turtles. But a joint study by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Aquarium of the Pacific aims to determine, among other things, what they're doing in there.

"Right now, it's a small group of what might be considered oddball turtles," said Peter Dutton, a senior researcher with the fisheries service. "But we have a lot to learn about them. Are they part of a more complex sea-turtle migration dynamic than we ever imagined, or just lost wanderers?"

Scientists also want to know how the federally endangered animals are adapting to the unique challenges they face in the 100-yard-wide river channel at the Los Angeles County-Orange County line, next to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's Haynes Generating Station. Those challenges include speedboats, water skiers, baited hooks, urban runoff, tons of garbage and harassment.

On Friday, a green sea turtle that had been trapped for weeks in the whirlpools of an intake channel near the power plant a few yards east of the river was rescued by a team of divers hired by the DWP. The 45-pound turtle was taken to the Aquarium of the Pacific, where veterinarians discovered a hook in its rear left flipper and a hook and a 3-inch gash in its front left flipper.

This week, witnesses told federal wildlife authorities that several fishermen had repeatedly tried to snag the animal. One man, they said, hooked onto one of its rear flippers and struggled for about an hour and half trying to bring the animal to shore. Eventually, the fishing line snapped and the turtle swam free.

Aquarium officials said they planned to release the turtle into the river in the vicinity of the power plant.

For years, wildlife authorities have received occasional reports of possible sea turtles in the river from people who fish its brackish stretches north of Alamitos Bay for halibut, sand bass and perch. One of the first scientists to make positive identification was fisheries service biologist Joseph Cordaro.

"I got a telephone call in 1988 from a jogger claiming to have witnessed a startling phenomenon," Cordaro recalled. "He said, 'Do you guys know there is a green sea turtle in the San Gabriel River?' "

Cordaro was skeptical. "I asked him if the turtle had claws on its feet," he said. "If the answer is yes, which it almost always is, it's a freshwater turtle. It saves me a trip."



But the caller insisted it was a sea turtle. "So I went out to see for myself," he said. "The turtle surfaced. I muttered, 'I don't believe what I'm seeing.' "

Nonetheless, subsequent reports of sea turtles cruising the river were dismissed as anecdotal evidence of individual turtles, most likely strays from a colony of sea turtles discovered in the late 1970s near the warm-water discharge of a San Diego Gas & Electric Co. power plant in San Diego Bay.

That colony was initially studied by Margie Stinson, a professor at Southwestern College in Chula Vista. Its matriarch is a 570-pounder whom Stinson named Wrinklebutt.

Stinson initially concluded that six or seven turtles -- including Wrinklebutt -- were attracted to the warm-water effluent of the power plant but spent most of their time elsewhere.

Later studies, however, revealed that the San Diego Bay colony actually includes at least 100 turtles, all of them permanent residents.

"We used to think the San Diego Bay group was the northernmost foraging colony of green sea turtles," Stinson said. "But it looks like the San Gabriel River colony has us beat for that title."

Scientists finally confirmed the existence of the San Gabriel River colony in May.

Green sea turtles, which can grow to 5 feet long and weigh more than 500 pounds, are an ancient species dating back as far as 30 million years.

Biologists suspect that the turtles nest on beaches more than 1,000 miles to the south, on islands off the Pacific coast of Mexico. But that's just a guess at the moment.

In years to come, genetic analysis, satellite telemetry, flipper tagging, vital statistics and daily monitoring could help answer myriad questions:

Do they travel here together or individually? To what genetic stock do they belong? Exactly how many are in the river? What are they eating?

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/30/local/me-turtles30

[DockRat]

What will they do now ?

The new law that goes into affect in 2018 says that power plants will no longer be able to use the ocean in Ca for cooling. What about the endangered turtles that live in that water ?
Global Warming Crowd ? What will happen ?
DR

[smokehound]

Every time someone makes a post demonizing fishermen on the internet, I'm going to refer them to this post, and ask them how many sea turtles they rescued from certain death.

[exfactor]

Every time someone makes a post demonizing fishermen on the internet, I'm going to refer them to this post, and ask them how many sea turtles they rescued from certain death.

back in the 70's, there was a large population of them in the back of san Diego bay, by the power plant that was there, along with a large number of jack crevelles also, which i witnessed, and also caught. I have seen at least a half dozen in Santa Barbara cruising the coast out in my boat in my life.One had to be over 500 pounds, which we followed for a good half hour. The furthest north i have seen them is in Morro Bay out albacore fishing.

[smokehound]

i still see these in newport harbor during summer

[TUNAVIC]

Man,talk about a catch of a lifetime! That was really cool,glad there was someone to take pics,I will be sharing those,my wife and once saw a vey large sea turtle inside the LB harbor,alot of people didn't believe us,but you got the proof,very cool!

Cya TUNAVIC

[smokehound]

SO that's why the turban snails and hermits are so abundant in the SGR outlet..

[frankjz]

Great good deed for the year and then some! I've never seen one of these in my 30+ years of fishing the SoCal coast. What a treat. Thanks for posting the happy ending.

[bachiboy]

Pretty amazing Daniel. I think that one's gonna be pretty hard to beat. :Wink: Very cool info on this report too.

[Nuoc Mam]

Congrats on an excellent outing.

Awesome job at getting all that line of the poor fella. Hope it makes it out to sea.

By the way, there used to be a huge, I mean a very huge sea turtle back in the days that always visits the alamitos bay jetty. Haven't seen it for a couple years now. Guess it was it's time to go.

[one long cast]

Jeez what test line was that????? Sorry didn't read second page

[Wingnut]

Wow, that's amazing Daniel... :Shocked:
I actually saw one of these Turtles in the surf in Santa Barbara years ago.
Keep up the great job out there and hope the New Year brings you more memorable catches. :Big Grin:

[skunked4life]

I am not sure that I want one of these on my bucket list, but what a catch Daniel! Great job safely releasing it. Poor guy looked like he was all choked up...

Skunked4life