(GRAPHIC) Fried Turtle+Ming Yang Reel (First Impressions)

Conventional reels and turtles...what's better than that? Check out the above video for some super professionally edited video of the trip (professional-ish).

Let's talk about the turtle first. Soft shell turtle season starts July 1st (should've made it July 4th because God Bless America!) and the soft shell turtle was the first non-fish, non-crawdad creature I caught and cooked.

They prefer to live in muddy and sandy locales and I've caught them in the eddies of rivers, the feeder creeks of lakes, and strangest location of all, along a large rocky dam. A good place to look in lakes is the original creek channel around flooded timber. In some senses, they share habitats with catfish. Turtles are relatively easy to target, since they bite during mid-day and will eat a variety of baits including worms, hot-dogs, cut-bait, and my famous jello-chicken. The dead giveaway as to whether turtles are in the area is if you see their little noses poking out of the water. Soft-shells have a very distinctive, pig-like snout.

My rig for these turtles was a simple slip sinker rig with a treble hook. I've tried circle hooks, but turtles don't bite like fish, so unless they swallow the whole hook, it's unlikely that a circle hook would work on them.

My two catches of the day

Turtles, unlike catfish, aren't likely to set your catfish bells ringing when they run. They'll run towards you with the bait, or to the side, or they'll just sit there and chew on it. This makes for exciting fishing because it really is a battle of wits. Thanks to their leathery skin and beaks, they are hard to hook. It's a bit of a give and take. Though their skin is tough, once you get a hook up they won't likely come off because of it.

As far as eating goes, turtles have a variety of cuts that vary widely in texture. Use the white meat for frying. It's wonderfully tender and fries even better than chicken. You might compare it to gator or frog. The red meat, however is best stewed. It's a little gamey, so I soak all the meat (even white meat) in buttermilk for a few hours. The smaller turtles don't have a ton of meat on them, but they are one of the largest growing species of turtles in the US and the big ones will get you four nice sized leg pieces.

This picture is actually from my first turtle hunt. You know it's good if Laura will eat it twice! 

Now, to my new reel.

I bought a Ming Yang CL60 from Amazon after seeing Catfish and Carp use them in his big rod/reel review series. I was immediately intrigued. Conventional reels are one of my vices. I love the way they look, I like casting them, I like reeling them, and you can find some really great vintage pieces that stand the test of time.

Good lookin' right? Also comes in orange, blue, and black! 

First, I'll say that it's a pretty good looking reel. It's simple, compact, but at the same time, has ridiculous line capacity (200 yards or so of 20 pound mono). Just judging on looks and some unboxing videos I've seen, the Ming Yang isn't using any new technology. In fact, it seems to be somewhere between the two reels I have right now.

One is a 70s/80s Abu Mitchell (made in France) and the other is, I believe an 80s/90s Mitchell Epic. In other words, it's not an Ambassadeur killer. The tech really isn't on the same playing field, but honestly, for a reel that I'm going to be using for bottom fishing, I don't care. I don't want to spend a hundred and fifty dollars for a reel that I won't use to its potential. If I lived along the coast, I might have a different opinion.

Pros:
Price
Metal components
It's compact
Looks good
Pretty smooth drag system
Great anti-reverse
The clicker isn't very loud (Pro for me because loud clickers annoy me)

Cons:
Fairly slow retrieve speed
Availability of parts in the future?
knobs on handle are pretty cheap feeling
The clicker isn't very loud (Con for someone who wants that deafening clatter)

Verdict
This reel is definitely worth the money. For someone who doesn't want to drop hundreds of dollars on fishing gear, the Ming Yang seems to be a fantastic intermediate level reel. I'll have to see how it stands up to the level of abuse that my reels go through (including, hopefully catching some monster fish) before I buy stock in an obscure Chinese reel manufacturer, but hey, thus far I'm a satisfied customer.