Have You Ever Caught A Snapping Turtle...??

[Dwight Hottle]

Not a snapper but I hooked a big Florida soft shell. I have been told they are extremely aggressive & worst than a snapper. Plus they have really long necks which they can stretch around to bite where you don't think they can reach. Had a guide tell me they caught a big one which they brought into their bass boat & it created havoc & bite up several seats. 

 

[Swamp Girl]

I'm thinking that @Crow Horse and his brother make Chuck Norris look like a sissy. 

[Crow Horse]

57 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Not a snapper but I hooked a big Florida soft shell. I have been told they are extremely aggressive & worst than a snapper. Plus they have really long necks which they can stretch around to bite where you don't think they can reach. Had a guide tell me they caught a big one which they brought into their bass boat & it created havoc & bite up several seats. 

 

Softshells have a really nasty attitude and coupled with a very long neck, they can do some serious damage. That long neck makes the danger zone quite large. They make snappers look docile.

Not a catching turtle story but years ago I was on the parkway heading into NYC and traffic slowed to a crawl in a section of road where it is usually free flowing. I made it up to the cause of the slowdown and it was a large snapper on it's back, legs flailing away. I couldn't get off the road at that point so I called my brother who got there too late to save the turtle. It was a female and looking to excavate a nest where she could drop her eggs. My brother removed the eggs and placed them in an incubator. Quite a few hatched and I kept one for a long time till he got too big and released him. Sad that the old girl died but some of her hatchlings made it.

[WRB]

I tried to rescue a big snapping turtle back in the 60’s at Bull Shoals lake that was hooked to a limb line.

Being from California had no idea this was someone’s set line. Pulled up the line and the big snapper had a big hook in its mouth so tried to knock it free with oar paddle. The big turtle bit down on the oar of the rental boat wouldn’t let go.

Cut the line and tied the oar to the anchor rope hoping the turtle would release its grip and continue to bass fish. The turtle never release the oar and it was time to return the boat. I pulled the turtle into the front of the boat carefully tied the turtle so it could move and went back to the boat landing. The big turtle probably over 50 lbs never release the oar.

The old man at the dock took one looked and asked if I wanted the turtle and I said no, he walked away. I untied the turtle, using the oar pull the turtle onto the dock.

I was still pulling on the turtle when an axe chopped off its head! The old man never warned me!

When I went to pay for the boat rental the old man asked if I liked turtle soup? I said never tried it he said come to the house. How much do owe you….he replied nothin.

Tom

[GreenPig]

Yes. Several on worms and 3 or 4 on a Musky JitterBug on purpose.

[PABASS]

Hooked a few while fishing, most memorable was flipping around a stump and T-H-U-M-P, thought I had a 10pounder, nope just a 30# snapper in the mouth!

[Alex from GA]

Yes a couple of years ago.  Netted it, cut the line and released it.

[TnRiver46]

Soft shells are no joke like everyone posted above. This one wheeled around and bit the end of my buddies thumb off! Haha. They will quickly destroy all your catfish lines like snappers, we caught like a dozen that weekend. We aren’t allowed to keep soft shell in TN but I had it at a restaurant in FLA, not bad. Very dark meat 

 

[Crow Horse]

They have a deceptively long neck and aren't afraid to use it's length to send one to the ER.

[ironbjorn]

I have, and that day was the first time my wife had heard me raise my voice. She wasn't my wife then. I caught a big snapping turtle in a small pond we went to in a park. I brought a spinning rod to casually fish the pond to see what was in it. I snagged a snapper and brought him in. My then girlfriend now wife thought he was cute and went to pet his head. I yelled at her to stop. She was startled and confused until I let her know what just almost happened to her hand.

[Bluebasser86]

 

[ThatFishingGuy]

Got one on a frog years ago, fishing a super shallow pond absolutely covered in lily pads. Had a huge blowup. Caught some decent bass out of there too, one of my favorite spots to fish. I picked up a large branch and did what I could to get leverage to get the hooks out without getting my hands near its mouth, but after a long struggle and the hooks not budging a bit I had to cut my line. I still think about that sometimes, I feel awful about it.

[Fallser]

I've never caught one.  I had a large one come after me while fishing a local creek.  I could see it coming toward me and poked it with my wading stick.  It kept coming so I retreated to the shore.  Once I got out of the water, it turned around and went back to deeper water.  When I was in school in Tennessee I was fishing one of my professor's farm pond.  I had a nice stringer of bluegills attached to a fence that ran into the pond.  The fence started shaking and I notice the stringer was straight out.  I pulled it in and found a snapper munching on my dinner.  It let go but my fish dinner was mostly gone.

[Crow Horse]

I probably should have posted this sooner, but one should never pick up a turtle (especially snappers) by the tail.

 

 

[padlin]

Thanks, didn’t know that about the tails. The one I’ve stopped to move off the road I did by the tail. If I ever encounter another it’ll be on it’s own.

 

Heavy suckers.

[gim]

On 5/17/2024 at 8:05 PM, TnRiver46 said:

This one wheeled around and bit the end of my buddies thumb off!

This is partially why I will never go noodling for catfish. There are all kinds of things living in a dark hole of a river that are looking to take off your finger, or worse, your whole hand.

 

I’ll let the hill billies risk their limbs for a catfish. I’ll keep mine and all my teeth, thank you very much.

[Bluebasser86]

17 hours ago, gimruis said:

This is partially why I will never go noodling for catfish. There are all kinds of things living in a dark hole of a river that are looking to take off your finger, or worse, your whole hand.

 

I’ll let the hill billies risk their limbs for a catfish. I’ll keep mine and all my teeth, thank you very much.

Snappers can't bite through fingers, just a myth. It'll hurt real bad and probably remove some hide, but that's it. 

 

My grandpa use to noodle for snapping turtles and was really good at it. I don't remember him ever getting bit. Just walked through muddy ponds and rivers until he stepped on one buried in the mud. He'd stand on the shell to hold them down and used a stick to tap around the shell until it tapped back, then he'd grab the opposite side, where the tail would be. 

 

I about caught another snapping turtle last night flipping water willows but thankfully it came up just short of the hook on my Rage Bug. It did get the back half of my bug though. 

[gim]

3 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Snappers can't bite through fingers, just a myth. It'll hurt real bad and probably remove some hide, but that's it. 

 

Good to know but I still aint going noodling.

 

Whole lot more critters out there waiting to take a bite out of me in a dark river hole.

[Bluebasser86]

1 minute ago, gimruis said:

 

Good to know but I still aint going noodling.

 

Whole lot more critters out there waiting to take a bite out of me in a dark river hole.

Beavers and leftover trotlines/limblines are always what scared me the most. I don't eat the fish I was catching doing it, so I don't do it anymore. 

 

This was even an alligator snapper, doesn't look like it feels very good though.

 

[gim]

6 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

This was even an alligator snapper, doesn't look like it feels very good though.

 

I don't care who you are.  That has to hurt.

[fin]

2 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

This was even an alligator snapper, doesn't look like it feels very good though.

 

Good to know. It looks like you could hurt yourself a lot worse if you panic and try to yank your hand out. That guy was about as cool as could be. Embarrassed, but cool. 😄

[Smells like fish]

On artificial lures, 2 I can think of. 1st one around age 13 on a crankbait. I thought I had a record bass. When he touched land he broke my line and kept my lure in his face. Not too long ago I caught one on a soft plastic.  The last time I actually fished for them I caught 22 in a months time. My elderly neighbor that thought they were the finest food to be had got burnt out on them. He said on number 22, that’ll be enough turtle 😀

[Catt]

[Scott F]

I got one on a Rapala Super Shad Rap while musky fishing. Sorry for the blurry picture but I was more interested in getting my lure back than a good picture! He was as big as a garbage can lid. Got the lure back with my looong nose pliers.