1000 Pound Sea Monster

[kmoose]

Had this fellow swim right up to the boat yesterday about 40 nautical out in the GOM. Its hard to get perspective on how big he is but he could of wore a five gallon bucket for a hat.

[riptide]

I almost hit one at 30knts running offshore. Missed it by inches.

[DonV]

Very cool Ken!!! Was fishing for yellow tail about a year ago and saw two turtles mating. Never seen that before.

We were able to drift to about 75' and it did not stop them from what they were doing, watched for about 20 minutes and left them alone. Was pretty neat.

[kmoose]

This was a crusty old leatherback. Ive only seen 3 in the gulf and this one was the biggest. They have found them 2100 pounds and this one was easily half of that.

[Blue_Heron]

Originally Posted by kmoose

This was a crusty old leatherback. Ive only seen 3 in the gulf and this one was the biggest. They have found them 2100 pounds and this one was easily half of that.

About 5 years ago, A friend and I were heading back in to Cedar Key from grouper fishing. It was foggy and we were running through a group of crab pots in about 25' of water. Started seeing lots of large jellyfish. Then started seeing large leatherbacks. We saw 4 or 5 of them as we were going along, then did a double take. There was one with a crab pot buoy right by his head. It was kinda "WTF, is he trying to eat that thing?".

We circled back and figured out he was tangled in the rope from the crab pot. It was wrapped around his neck and both front flippers. He was having to lift the pot off the bottom just to come up for air. We chased him around trying to catch him, but he kept going under. After about 5 minutes of pursuit, he was tired enough we could get close, and we managed to get a boat hook on the rope.

Fortunately, he was too tired to struggle very much, or we would have gotten the crap beaten out of us. We managed to get the rope cut loose and sent him on his way. He was about 6' long, and a good 3' wide in the shell. Head was about 10" across if I remember.

We were glad we could help. ++ Karma points. Makes ya feel good to be alive.
Dave

[76Red18]

Old leatherbacks usually point to good bottom also.

[NoBones]

We save them so the Bahamian's can eat them....
Go figure...

In Daytona, it's lights out when it comes to hatching season.

[kmoose]

We also got into the redfish spawn in 80 feet on this trip for some non-stop catch and release. The shortest was 31 inches....

[McGillicuddy]

Awesome, Ken! Looks crusty indeed. I saw one pop up about 400 miles off Mendocino as the sun popped out after 5 days of gales on a 58' gill-net boat. Best estimate was about 5'x7'. Absolutely fascinating. Truly world travelers.

They are out there but hardly ever see them down south here. Almost always Greens and Loggerheads, and occasional Olive Ridleys. We have a small resident population of Greens in San Diego Bay but rarely see them. Awesome creatures. Thanks for posting.

Sounds like an epic redfish stop. That section of the big pool looks very healthy.

[Calibogue]

The leatherbacks will show up here about the time the cobia do....
Huge reptiles for sure!