Afraid to go in the water

[watson]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/bringm...ng-turtle-sneaks-up-on-fish-basket-goes-viral

 

[LBrandt]

Thats a lot of soup. I have eaten turtle and like it. LB

 

[Allen]

Snappers of that size are way, way more common than people think. Back in my teens when I worked for a commercial fishery on Sak and Audubon, we would catch turtles of this size all the time. Scary motherf@$#ers. I'd have to go into the bag of the seine to release them. Which means you would grab them by the tail and toss them out!

 

[ice head]

Apple creek is loaded with snapping turtles, some as large as the one in the video.

 

[PrairieGhost]

I like snapping turtle and a few times as a kid I would staple the biggest trap we had on the farm to a three foot piece of 2x12, tie a fish to the petal and float it upside down in the Sheyenne River with about a 25 to 30 ft rope. Drove myself up a wall trying to boil turtle eggs. They do not harden up like chicken eggs.

 

[Ruffnd]

Back in the day, we were fishing the Missouri River north of beaver bay. We had a handful of fish on an old stringer that we left in the water overnight. The next morning all we had left were fish heads. We never confirmed what had a midnight snack, but thought it was a snapper.

 

[LBrandt]

Back in the late 60 I worked for a lumberyard that was right next to the elevator and a couple times this old pickup pulled up to the scale at the elevator to get weight total. The guy had side panels on the box made out of heavy fencing and it was full of turtles. I finally asked a buddy at the elevator what the story was about the Turtles and he told me the guy was trapping them along the wild rice river and his permit was for so much weight. there were some where their head and neck barely fit through the 6x6 netting on that pickup box. I have ate turtle over in Minn at a cafe in Ashby it was good, I liked it. They said there is like 6 or 7 different textures of meat on a turtle, I dont know for sure. LB

 

[sl1000794]

Finally found some pics I was looking for - they were on a back-up hard drive, not on my laptop. Several friends and I crabbed for 20 years off the coast of northern CA out of Half Moon Bay/Pillar Point Harbor. It is located south of SFO and north of Santa Cruz. Usually we crab 4-5 miles off shore in 180-190 feet of water. In 2009 we had NO luck on opening weekend, so I added 100' of line to the traps and we went 12 miles offshore to 280-290' of water. The next day when we went out to pull the traps this is what we saw:

Leatherbacked turtle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leatherback_sea_turtle

In 30 years of salmon fishing in the same area I only saw one other turtle.

We also met up with this guy heading north in the shipping lane:

The SS Capella, a BIG vessel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Capella_(T-AKR-293)

 

[Prairie Doggin']

Back in the day, we were fishing the Missouri River north of beaver bay. We had a handful of fish on an old stringer that we left in the water overnight. The next morning all we had left were fish heads. We never confirmed what had a midnight snack, but thought it was a snapper.

I had a similar experience on the Sheyenne. My wife's grandma liked to eat bass. I normally caught and released. Went out at dawn one morning (river ran through backyard at the time) and hauled in a Whopper smallmouth. 4+lbs. Put it on stringer for her and went back to bed. Came out later and back third was gone. Assumed snapper since I'd frequently seen them around. Filleted what was left.

 

[JayKay]

Lake Tschida has some big turdles in it too. Too big to get in a landing net, by far.

 

[Lycanthrope]

I had some pet snappers when I was a kid. Id catch the fishing for bullheads occasionally, take them home and keep them in a cattle tank for the summer and release them in the fall when it would start to get cold again. They would eat mostly frogs and toads... If you wanna catch a snapper, shoot a small bird or gopher, pull as much skin off it as you can and throw it in a pond. Most permanent ponds that dont freeze solid have snappers in them and theyll eat just about anything. I also used to collect snapper eggs in the spring, take them home and hatch them out and release the baby turtles back where they came from, or in local streams/lakes. Gotta keep the eggs upright when moving them, use a marker to put a dot on the shell before removing them from the hole. Sometimes its hard to find the nests before coons/skunks dig them up and eat them...

 

[Shockwave]

There was a decent sized one hanging out by The Pier all summer. I also cam across a little guy in the middle of 43rd about where Legacy HS is. I spun around to make sure that's what it was and sure shit. I thought about picking it up and taking it home with me, but I left it alone.

 

[svnmag]

 

[svnmag]

I've never came across a little snapping turtle.

 

[Lycanthrope]

I've never came across a little snapping turtle.

little snappers are great snacks for a lot of other animals, like most turtles, not many survive Id guess... Also little snappers tend to stay near the bottom of lakes/rivers, hiding in the mud or rocks. Ive found a few newborns, but I was looking for them...

 

[JayKay]

This reminds me of the Roy D. Mercer pranks that a radio DJ in Tulsa used to do. Good NIGHT!!

He'd get people wound up, and then tell them he was gonna be on them "Like a rat on a cheeto".

Oh, I love me some mumbles.

 

[svnmag]

little snappers are great snacks for a lot of other animals, like most turtles, not many survive Id guess... Also little snappers tend to stay near the bottom of lakes/rivers, hiding in the mud or rocks. Ive found a few newborns, but I was looking for them...

I meant I've never came across a snapping turtle.