Most of my fishing is done at a pond located in my subdivision. The species of fish I know are in the pond are bluegill, largemouth bass, bullhead, carp, and crappie. One day I was fishing a 6" junebug worm with a bullet weight and was reeling in when I feel like something grabbed the bait. Naturally I set the hook but nothing was on the line and when I was reeling my worm back in to make another cast I noticed it felt lighter. When it came into my view I saw the whole tail of the worm was gone. I've never had a bass or anything do this to any plastic I have used before especially since it was a new out of the package worm. I thought maybe a turtle but I have only seen red ear sliders and they just don't seem big enough to do that kinda damage. I live in Illinois but im not sure if we have snapping turtles here because all this land used to be farmland. Im sure this has happened to other guys so I wanna hear your stories and thoughts.

It sounds like a turtle to me. could also have been a broken bottle or something on the bottom.

i'd say pickerel, turtle, or bass.

Bass can pull the tails off worms pretty easily. If they bite down on nothing but the tail and you set the hook even a new worm will be minus a tail when you reel it in.

Bass can pull the tails off worms pretty easily. If they bite down on nothing but the tail and you set the hook even a new worm will be minus a tail when you reel it in.

i agree. and even a small redear slider could have done it. they just need a little bite on the side and the tail of your worm is a goner. they have sharp jaws, trust me, ive been bitten

Freakin' squirrels...

Freakin' squirrels...

Squirrels don't live under water, silly It was the Loch Ness Monster

Squirrels don't live under water, silly It was the Loch Ness Monster

A great white possibly.

I live in IL and caught this last year:

It is possible a turtle grabbed it. I was swimming a curly tail grub when this guy came from out of nowhere and grabbed it.

It very well could have been a turtle, I have had them chomp down on my plastic worms before. Bass can very well bite off the tail of a plastic worm also, I have had it happen several times.

Turtles, brim, or bluegill. I've had bluegill do it to my baits.

I think it was the mysterious chupacabra.

bluegill/bream are notorious for biting the tails off plastic worms, i would suspect them even before a turtle

Ditto on the bluegill guess. I lose a lot of curly tails and pinchers off rage craws to bluegill. Bass inhale the bait. Bluegill nip.

I kept losing anaconda tails last summer and finally got fed up with it and took a dive....

This is what I saw....I'll never swim in that lake again

gary busey.

Manbearpig. Definitely