Twitch streamer stunned as huge snapping turtle takes bait while fishing

Taking your rod down to the water for a few hours is supposed to be a relaxing exercise for those fishing, but this Twitch streamer wasn’t in that boat. Not even close. 

Streamer Alec Ludford, who has over 85,000 followers on his channel, doesn’t always do fishing streams. In fact, he’s more of a variety man, and can be found broadcasting regularly in the ‘Just Chatting’ section of the website.

During a stream on May 14, he landed himself a catfish at around 10lb in weight, and also kayaked around the Virginia Beach Swamps. While there were some impressive things to see during his time in front of the camera, nothing quite topped the surprise arrival of a snapping turtle.

For those who don’t know already, snapping turtles are typically around eight to 12 inches long – according to All Turtles – but Alec and his viewers were in for the shock of their lives as an absolute unit ended up on his line, after taking his bait.

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“Dude, look at that big old turtle man,” he said. The turtle had snapped the line with a quick bite, but before it could escape back into the water, Ludford pulled it out using its tail to show people watching along on Twitch. That, and to see if he could possibly get the hook out from its mouth.

The fisherman added: “Holy crap, I can’t even get that hook out. That hook will just rot out. I’m not putting my hand anywhere near that, dude. Look at that sucker, woo!”

After putting the turtle back in the water, Alec took a moment to sit down and reflect –responding to a few messages from the chat.

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One of them quickly suggested that he should have kissed its nose, but the request was politely declined, as he said it could have bitten his nose clean off. That’s probably true as well, as they do have a mean bite on them normally – never mind one as big as this.

“Damn, that thing weighed about 25lb. Oh my god,” he said. “That’s probably one of the biggest snapping turtles I’ve ever caught.”

He continued fishing in that spot and others for the rest of the broadcast, going long into the night to give people watching along a real adventure to follow.

It’s very likely that Alec will go on to continue these fishing streams in the future, but there is a slim chance viewers will see anything like this encounter ever again – as that thing was huge!