worldtalker
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Went down the meadows yesterday looking for stinging nettle,saw this female out in the field looking for a spot to lay eggs,spotted another mess of nettles too.
Snappers are out.
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tamrock
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How nice she smiled for the camera. They've got a long history on this continent.
The snapping turtle family, Chelydridae, evolved in North America and has haunted our wetlands almost unchanged for nearly 90 million years.
The snapping turtle family, Chelydridae, evolved in North America and has haunted our wetlands almost unchanged for nearly 90 million years.
Bucket Lister
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Love it. My Missus has a pet tortoise--Western Hermann's from Majorca--males max out at 4"-5".
Not a snapper, but similar smile! 😁
Not a snapper, but similar smile! 😁
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worldtalker
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My ding a ling.
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No Particular Place to Go
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worldtalker
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All you can do is cut the line.
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Great pic buddy.... Brings back an old nightmare I lived.
When I was about 13-14 years old my two uncles and I was seining a small pond for bait fish for a few trot lines. He ran the lines in the Grand River near Brunswick MO. The net we were using was about 12' wide X 3' tall. I was told to keep the pole on the bottom and just push it ahead to the shoreline. Suddenly I couldn't move the pole no more and I was in about 4' of water. Now I was only about 4'8" tall so just my head was above water. I tried and tried but couldn't move it. Finally my other uncle who's 6'4" tall stripped down and entered the water. He slowly moved the pole and net forward toward shore. A HUGE snapper was in the net and it wasn't happy. That thing was only about 2'-3' from my pole end. I couldn't believe the size of it...! My uncle ran naked back to the truck, got a pistol, shot the turtle, got dressed and put it in the back of his truck to butcher later. Then he wanted me to GET BACK IN THE WATER because we needed more bait fish.... NOT.... nor did I to his dismay.
When I was about 13-14 years old my two uncles and I was seining a small pond for bait fish for a few trot lines. He ran the lines in the Grand River near Brunswick MO. The net we were using was about 12' wide X 3' tall. I was told to keep the pole on the bottom and just push it ahead to the shoreline. Suddenly I couldn't move the pole no more and I was in about 4' of water. Now I was only about 4'8" tall so just my head was above water. I tried and tried but couldn't move it. Finally my other uncle who's 6'4" tall stripped down and entered the water. He slowly moved the pole and net forward toward shore. A HUGE snapper was in the net and it wasn't happy. That thing was only about 2'-3' from my pole end. I couldn't believe the size of it...! My uncle ran naked back to the truck, got a pistol, shot the turtle, got dressed and put it in the back of his truck to butcher later. Then he wanted me to GET BACK IN THE WATER because we needed more bait fish.... NOT.... nor did I to his dismay.
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worldtalker
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How you been Brad?Great pic buddy.... Brings back an old nightmare I lived.
When I was about 13-14 years old my two uncles and I was seining a small pond for bait fish for a few trot lines. He ran the lines in the Grand River near Brunswick MO. The net we were using was about 12' wide X 3' tall. I was told to keep the pole on the bottom and just push it ahead to the shoreline. Suddenly I couldn't move the pole no more and I was in about 4' of water. Now I was only about 4'8" tall so just my head was above water. I tried and tried but couldn't move it. Finally my other uncle who's 6'4" tall stripped down and entered the water. He slowly moved the pole and net forward toward shore. A HUGE snapper was in the net and it wasn't happy. That thing was only about 2'-3' from my pole end. I couldn't believe the size of it...! My uncle ran naked back to the truck, got a pistol, shot the turtle, got dressed and put it in the back of his truck to butcher later. Then he wanted me to GET BACK IN THE WATER because we needed more bait fish.... NOT.... nor did I to his dismay.
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Apparently , nervous when in the water!
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worldtalker
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Have you ever watched one of them critters tongue fish?
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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....!!!!!!
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I'm doing fine guy and hope you are too.... and no I've never watched one of those critters tongue fish. I'm just glad it didn't latch onto me in that deep of water. My best to ya friend.... Brad
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Barefoot a month at a time in summers.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....!!!!!!
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...
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Years ago I trapped those for food. I wouldn’t take any before July 4th; usually the females have laid their eggs by then. They are delicious when cooked properly. Tougher than hell if cooked incorrectly.
Now I’m getting soft. When I see one crossing the road, I make sure it gets across. 👍🏼
Now I’m getting soft. When I see one crossing the road, I make sure it gets across. 👍🏼
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worldtalker
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All is well.I saw one as a kid back in 1962 under a bridge,its mouth was wide open just underwater and it was flicking its tongue like a worm,nature has always amazed me.
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That would be amazing to see.... Last late fall here in Tennessee I looked out the front window and saw 12-15 turkeys walking across the lawn. That happens all the time but this time there was a totally white one in the middle of the long line of them. Didn't have phone close or camera and yelled for girlfriend to come see. We watched it walk into the woods and we've never seen it again. I looked it up and their called "ghost turkeys" here. Very rare to survive to adulthood as this one had and it was NO spring yearling. Glad I got to see one.
tamrock
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My grandpa who lived most all his life in Burlington, Iowa with the exception of being sent to France around maybe 1917 to fight in the trenches told me he ate snappers plenty of times. He told me before they built the locks on the Mississippi he'd gather plenty of eels in his youth out of that river which was a pretty regular food source for him back then. He'd often have a big live catfish swimming in a galvanized tub full of water on his back porch that we would have for dinner the nights we arrived. As a kid I always felt kind a sad for that catfish just swimming in circles with the last few hours of his life. I just thought it be cool to keep a live catfish as a pet.
