Thames fishing today.

[Beats]

Was out fishing the Greenway Park area in London this afternoon and managed to catch 6 bass all near the train bridge over the river. All of the bass were quite small so I didn't bother to take any pics of them. On my way home I saw a very rare animal basking in the sun. It was by far the largest soft-shelled turtle I have ever seen. I've now seen 3 in my life. One at the lower dam of the Sydenham in Strathroy about 15 years ago and one at the lower Pittock Dam in Woodstock about 2 years ago. Both of these turtles had shells about the size of a CD, the one today was easily 4-5 times that. I didn't know they got this big. I took 2 pics of the turtle before it saw me and shot into the water. I was way up on some sort of concrete breakwall off the beaten path. The 2 other baby turtles appear to be snappers to me. Odd shaped shells on them. Unfortunately the pics aren't too detailed since I was so far from the turtles. I'll be going back soon to see if it frequents that spot for basking.

 

 

 

[fatherof3]

great wildlife shots

[BrownTown]

you must live near me, that train bridge is my backyard!

[redx]

if you want to see more soft shell turtle you should goto the Fanshaw dam, at the east side of the London. I remember seeing alot there when I lived in London. Spiked soft shell? not sure of the name but other endangered type of soft shell turtle can be found there too.

[Headhunter]

Yup, just a bit down stream from the train bridge is a small feeder creek that is used to control the water levels of the coves. Since I was a boy, that creek has held soft shell turtles, painted turtles as well as some massive snappers!

Nice pics, thanks for posting!

HH

[MJL]

Really cool pics!

 

I don't think I have ever seen one of those in the wild before. The only one I ever saw was at Big Al's in their goldfish pond years ago.

[Mike Pike]

Cool pics and a great find there, Beats. I've never seen one yet myself.

 

I know the Softshell Turtle is listed as 'threatened' in the Grand River Watershed because it's losing a lot of its habitat.