Creatures Lurking Beneath

[HEEF]

So I'm fishing a young small farm pond the other day. I tied on my old faithful, a green pumpkin with red flake tube. First cast BAM a nice little 1pounder, next cast the lure sinks to the bottom, I bump it twice and another bass sucks it in. I'm thinking to myself its going to be a really good after work stop. Third cast, sinks to the bottom I bump it and get a thump, lift the rod and it comes loose. I bump it again and thump again so I set the hook, only to hear my drag scream. I had 20lb power pro on so I'm not worrying about it too much. I reel it in and there is an big ole ugly snapper. Just mad as hell! My question is how detrimental are snapping turtles to a young fishery?! I sure hate losing lures to those creatures lurking beneath.

[Zoff]

I just make it a point to kill EVERY turtle I find in any of my ponds. I have shot ones as big as a garbage can top... 2'+ across.

[buzzfrog]

i fish LOTS of ponds, turtles really dont matter, i mean if it i a good maintanced pond, if it is got a good population of gills, it is definatly fine. my main pond is a 5 acre pond, we have tagged 5 big snappers, me and my friend are not hardcore scinetific but we are having fun monitering the progress. if it is over run with snappers, it may become bad, but paints,red ear and other "hang on log" turtles are 100% fine.. my dad is one of those lets kill em all.. when we bank catfsh, every turtle, he is running to grab the knife, i just pop em off.

[brushhoggin]

i had a comical run in with a snapping turtle a few months ago. i caught one fishing with a freakin 1/16 oz road runner. anyways, i got him to the surface and grabbed the back of the shell (since their head only comes out so far...right?) so my buddy could get some hemostats on him. well what i didnt know was that he actually could stretch his neck out and almost bite his own tail if he wanted to, so i freaked out after a few of his attempts to destroy my hand, fumbled the turtle, lost the hemostats, and nearly had my rod pulled into the water. little a-holes haven't survived millions of years for nuthin

[buzzfrog]

yea, i got soooo d**n ticked when i see people kill the big one, i mean turtle grow slow, so one that big, has probably been around 90 years , then somone kills them, slits there throat and pulls up on shore to die

[greyleg33]

I'm not a God fearin' man but all creatures have a place.

[marinetech]

I do not like it either when people kill snappers , no need of it

[guest]

If it is a native species, try your best to throw it back in the condition you found it.

You go into an innocent, hungry turtles home and dangle food above his head, and then you want to kill him for messing your lure up? The turtle probably pays some vital roles in the ecosystem that we lay people do not know about. You killing it could have a negative impact on the fish population. I try to leave the fishery in as close to the condition as I found it, and only harvest a small, sustainable amount of food.

[Bankbeater]

Makes me wonder about all those times when I have felt a bite while fishing plastics on the bottom and pulled in half a worm. How many were fish and how many were turtles.

[Big-O]

Removing or transplanting a big Sappers from a small body of water to a larger one is not necessarily a bad idea as they will migrate from one body of water to another to improve their feeding habitat.

There CAN be too many turtles in certain bodies of water and especially the smaller ones like ponds. To keep the turtle numbers down, some pond owners and/or managers trap and move them to the nearest river system where they most probably migrated into the pond from originally...

[buzzfrog]

Removing or transplanting a big Sappers from a small body of water to a larger one is not necessarily a bad idea as they will migrate from one body of water to another to improve their feeding habitat.

There CAN be too many turtles in certain bodies of water and especially the smaller ones like ponds. To keep the turtle numbers down, some pond owners and/or managers trap and move them to the nearest river system where they most probably migrated into the pond from originally...

good advice, we was thinking of diggin out a stream and forming a small pond to transport snappers and stuff, actually id really like to study and help move them, a billy the extremanater without being a complete F'in dumb@ss, dont get me started on him, that is an ocean of worms, lol

[HEEF]

@bankbeater- Coming back with half a worm or tube happens to me all the time at certain ponds, and I'd say 9 times out of 10 its a turtle.

Thanks for all the input guys. This pond is small, I'm talking probably 35-40yds length x width, and thats just a rough estimate. I just left the snapper alone. Its not my pond so I'm not going to change it. Like some of you have stated, leave it like you found it. I was just wondering if they mess up that ecosystem or not.

[tallydude]

I just make it a point to kill EVERY turtle I find in any of my ponds. I have shot ones as big as a garbage can top... 2'+ across.

Sorry guys, but this post had me shaking my head. Not good sportsmanship nor is it being a ward of the environment.

[Zoff]

Sorry guys, but this post had me shaking my head. Not good sportsmanship nor is it being a ward of the environment.

OK... a bit over the top with the statement. I don't kill ALL. I leave the little guys be and they do a good job scavenging up the dead stuff. Just the big ones and someone does get the carcass and eats it. If you have seen the damage they have done... you would as well. They have dug holes nearly completely through my dam before and have caused leaks, I make no apologies for controlling the population. I have guys that come and fish for turtles but have not been able to catch them all so they have to be removed in any way possible.

And no... it is not about sportsmanship or environmentalism. It's about damage control. Plain and simple

[LgMouthGambler]

I love turtles! They make great soup!