Avoiding Turtles by Using Plastics

This large mirror took two small. artificial.
pop-up, plastic corns fished on the hair
with no method ball.  It was a great way
to avoid the pesty turtles and catch the carp.

In this case I am using
just one piece of artificial
corn on a short hair. That
also worked well today.

The good news of the day is that I landed 12 carp this morning.  The bad news is that I also landed 3 large snapping turtles. Turtles are a fact of life if you fish for carp in the warm summer months around here,  but there is a way to avoid them while still catching carp. Plastics.  The turtles (for the most part) will not grab your plastics, although I have gotten a few in the past with plastics, but not at the rate that you will lure them with regular bait.
Today I did an experiment.  I fished one today with regular maize and a method ball.  I fished the other outfit with just a plastic piece of corn or two and no method ball. I landed 6 carp on the real stuff and landed 6 carp on the plastic corn.  But, all the turtles went for the real stuff. So, my little sample from today shows that the plastic artificial corn is just as effective on the carp as the real stuff while not luring the turtles. It's a great way to beat the turtles at their own game.
This is no new revelation.  RI's Dark Carper, Kev Wasliewski, has been touting plastics for years on his blog as a bait that turtles will avoid but carp will hit.  You can read some of his stuff on his blog here.