Hell I still get nervous when I take a shower.....Just the thought of being up to my neck in water and that huge turtle that close scares me. It weighed more than I did....!!!!!!
Barefoot a month at a time in summers.
Lost a slipper creeping on snappers in muck. (Worn to reduce potential toe snapper bite pinching.)
When hump of weeds or muck is moving I'd watch to guess if snapper was going away or simply reversing while facing me.
Feel sides of estimated shell position to find anything pointing/....rearward. Thus knowing which end is tailed.
A gal would pay for them near that lake. Thus they were not always ignored.
We hog tied one that we caught crossing a road. Well not really; but the rope convinced the driver it was reasonably safe to haul . Snappers can emit quite a strong musk. Or at least a stinky poop!
Driver not impressed. Two happy kids with a big o snapper. Snapper not so happy.
Family friend on the home lake Dad lived in site of (not on of course) had snapper shells from biggest to smallest on a garage wall. One a man could hide behind.
artesian well fed cement tanks in yard to "clean out" snappers by clean running water a while.
A smoker made from fridge for fish..
I've a photo somewhere of three turtles from that lake .
Me lifting (not above ground) the smallest with my skinny arms. Dad lifting on the biggest about the size of a V.W. Bug roof.
A few snappers since. And multiple great snapper habitats later I leave them alone anymore.
Appreciate the season/limits on thier killing and the awareness of some spring travel to egg laying areas that conflict with vehicle traffic ect..
But snappers first means easy does it feeling around underwater. I've stood on one by accident that moved before early on.. And watched one eat some fish offal in a clear water pond when it was on the bottom.
Maybe they don't bite humans underwater unless by accident or when being harmed.
They just never bit me.
I don't like taking a hook out. Have. It has been a rare event anyways.
If non stainless hooks I have no objections to someone cutting their line . Preferably just out of turtle bite reach vs a long piece of line.
In later years I'd catch mud puppies by hand.
But the first one ever seen by me had died and ended up discolored, bloated and on rocks out of the water.
Someone yelled "Mudpupy" after when we were swimming (and someone would) and I'd about demonstrate walking on water!
I might still...
