Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Should I be concerned about big snapper?

Noticed about a 10 to 15 lb. snapping turtle on the pond this evening. Is he or she stealty enough to nail some fish in an ambush postion? He sure was good at hiding from me once I saw him. Never came up in the 15 minutes I waited for him.

I've got lots of valuable bass that I sell frozen for $12.00 per pound and lots of bluegills too. They're quite slow moving and travel in large schools. I can't tolerate injuries as they are worth too much.

Oh I know turtles have been discussed on here but a search produced nothing.

What's the scoop? Leave him alone?

catch and eat him

I few weeks ago a buddy was fishing my pond and hooked a nice 3 LB bass. The fish went under a shallow log and got one of the treble hooks caught on the log. My buddy paddles over to the log to retrieve his fish and hears a splash. When he unhooked the bass from the log, all he had left was the head! One of the large snappers got the body of the bass in an instant!

I have seen the head and mouth of the largest of the snappers at my pond and they could take off a finger or hand or foot easily.

'nough said about turtles at my pond.

Frank

What do you suggest to catch it? Large treble hook below a jug float baited with a chunk of meat? Steel cable for line?

cecil, just browsing the forum, for an answer to your question, i will definitely defer to the experts on this one, but your snapping turtle story reminded me of what happened to me two years ago (Sept. of 04). was in MD for my Uncles funeral....visited some old family friends who had become very well to do, and bought a large historic farm out in Poolesville. Sadly they didnt know much of anything about their property and asked me to walk around and identify trees, rocks, shrubs and the like. one evening their little ones (6-10 yr olds) wanted to go on a hike at dusk w/ me. so we ambled down through the pasteur towards a little creek, lightning bugs were all around, it was thick and humid out, almost no light left. as we approached the green belt around creek i started to tell them how fishermen read water while "hunting" for fish and how you have to sneak up on the pools, stay low, and dont cast a shadow across water. from a distance i saw a nice big pool with a log bordering our side. i told them we will see fish if we're real careful. so we all stooped way down and crept towards the big log. as we got up to the log we slowly rose and as we peered over the top we were 1 foot away from the face of a giant snapping turtle resting on other side of log. the kids screamed, the turtle slid off into the water, i almost DIED right there. glad i still got my nose. at close range its gotta be one of the scariest most primitive critters around. what a thrill though, we watched him swim around and find a deep hole under some roots. to this day, they all still talk about that and think i did it on purpose

they do know their property a little better, and took interests in finding out more about the creeks, ponds, and wildlife.

anyway, thanks for lettin me share that one.

we have a lot of western pond turtles between my pond and the downstream ranch pond, and they dont appear to do too much, but they aint snappers.

Dave,

Yep that's pretty funny! And I can see why they still talk about it! Thinks like that make it fun to be a kid!

Anybody know if there is anyway to take this turtle alive when he is in the water? I don't think snappers are the sunbathers the other turtles are so a box trap probably won't work.

If I can catch him I could sell him to another taxidermist or relocate him or her.

Personally, i would take him out by whatever means possible. A number of years ago, almost all the ponds within 3 to 4 miles of mine went dry in a multi-year drought. my 3 acre pond went down to just over 1/2 acre and average depth of 6', and the snappers began to move in. keep in mind i'm 10 miles from town and nearest neighbors are about 1/2 mile away as the crow flies. Several people who reguarly fish the pond began showing up and using the turtles for target practice. Those snappers did their best not to die in the water & if they could get to the bank they did. The 2 largest snappers shot could have stood on top of a lidless garbage can. We finally lost the count of dead snappers in the 14-16 area plus a bunch of painted turtles. had some guys that butchered a some of them. The area fish biologist was in agreement that the snappers needed to go. There sure wasn't much to eat in that pond outside of fish. We were fortunate to have a mild winter temperature wise and the fish loss over the winter was very minimal. it still a few years to
get the pond back to where it had been production wise. (It also serves as a livestock water source.)

Tie a line to a tree or stake. Bait a hook with bacon in the edge of water. Do this at night. Next day be very careful. He will be angry.

Will a live trap (usually catch stray cats with it) take this turtle if it's wide enough for him to get in? I could set it near the water and put a fish in it.

That snapper will tear a live trap apart. I've seen them rip a fish basket to pieces to get to fish. Use a bank line with 800# + braided line and heavy duty tru-turn hook-stainless steel preferable. Bait it with liver or dead frog.

I hate to see a big turtle destroyed and if it were in my pond, I would welcome or at least tolerate it.

However, your pond is different. I wouldn't use an untended bank line for fear that I would catch a marketable fish and not be there to release it unharmed. I recall that you can't shoot in your neighborhood so I would fish for it.

The only snapper I have seen caught in the water was taken on 10 lbs mono baited with a worm for bluegill - verrrrry carefully, like pulling a snag out using under 10lbs of force.

During nesting season in the subdivision next door, snappers just get pulled out of the mulch (again, verrrrry carefully) under bay windows. But I'm afarid it may be too late in the year for their nesting for you to lure him (ooops, would have to be her, I guess) out with a nesting site.

Cecil..............having been raised in Louisiana..............we use to catch these monsters all the time........nail some large treble hooks to a 3/4 inch plyboard about 6 to 9 hooks spaced out evenly.... the board should be 3 by 3 foot.......run a trotline or cable to a stump or shoreline.............bait with chicken and sink about a foot under the surface w/ a brick...once you catch him drag him to shore and fire up the stove!!!......good luck

Personally, I have no desires to remove snappers from my pond (I have maybe 60+ of them).

But for you, Cecil, your ponds are your living. So the snapper has to go.

You can do the pole on the bank method, or fish for him with a heavy fishing rod with heavy line. Use chicken or liver as bait (I don't think any of your game fish will eat the bait).

Once you get him up on shore, he will be pissed. Try to get him into some kind of box for relocation (or kill him if you like).

But don't try and remove the hook. They are surprisingly fast and have more reach than you would think.

BTW, keep your dog in the house when you get the snapper on shore.

I have recently caught some fish with cuts in their backs. The cuts appear to have been made by a large turtle but I'm not sure what caused them. Can a snapping turtle attack fish that are two pounds and larger?

It's more likely the cuts were caused by catfish (if you have any) or birds. If a snapper latches on to a fish, it's usually a goner. The only way a fish will survive is when it was barely nipped, in which case it will be a very small wound.

you can use a treble hook and bait but tie it off to something on the bank. some people down here get in the water and feel for them on the bottom and when they find them they feel there back to see which way the head is and then grab them accordingly.i have only heard this method never seen it, but i would never try it. i have seen people bit by snappers and they scream loudly so just be careful.

I've caught snappers more often than I'd like when fishing for catfish. Usually with chicken liver on a treble hook. I've had 'luck' catching them jug fishing at various depths. I have some cheap 50 lb test line that I use for jug fishing and the snappers don't break the line. They are hard to get out of the water, so I generally shoot them and cut the line.

One time a few of us were out and caught one and got it to shore. We cut its head off and while later someone went over to it and put a stick in it's mouth. It clamped down HARD on that stick and didn't let go. Be very careful, they are a nasty creature.

Here's my take for what it's worth: My pond is right at 1 acre, and up to recently it had hoards of very large, as well as small, snappers in it. A little over a year ago we noticed a decline in the LMB population. About the same time we had an otter find his way to the pond for a visit. The otter was dealt with, but we didn't care for such a large population of snappers in the pond. Anytime someone would decide to keep a fish and place it on a stringer hanging from the dock, it would only take a few minutes for snappers to attach themselves to the fish. One instance pissed us off bad enough for a friend to walk into the cabin and grab a 12 gauge, walk back to the stringer and pull it up (snappers attached) and exclaim "Say hello to my little friend," as he pulled the trigger. That resulted in my friend having to call Mr. Wolf (Pulp Fiction). I don't know if they are capable of catching live and healthy LMB or not, but one has to wonder about what such a large population of snappers could be feeding on in a pond that is only 1 acre. So, to make an already long story a bit shorter, I decided each trip I make to the property (pond), I take my AR-15. I still have 5 or 6 of them in the pond, and suppose that's an okay number for the size of the pond. Any more, and their history.

Oh, it's amazing how long those things can live, even after being shot! Shot one through the head with a .45 and it lived for two hours. Prehistoric, for sure.

Because of the loss of LMB and other fish, nesting mallard eggs and more recently mallard chicks, I declared war on the turtles in general in our ponds and with a special emphasis given to the snappers. I started shooting them with a .22 but quickly switched to a 3" 20 gauge load of #4 lead (left overs from when lead was still legal for waterfowl) and I have made an appreciable decrease in their numbers.

What's amazing to me is how many there are and just how canibalistic they can be. A turtle shot today will be an empty shell on a bank somwhere tomorrow, I kid you not.

And by the way, the most effective location I've found for catching and killing them is in adjoining pastures or the farm yard just after daybreak when they have been off marauding for their evening meal, laying eggs, or both.

Thanks all for all your suggestions. I was ready to set up some jugs with chunks of fish on a hook and line complete with steel leader, but after making a call to a trapper friend of mine he's going to loan me a trap to trap it unharmed. If I catch it I will relocate it at least 10 miles away if it can fit into a 5 gallon bucket, but if it's too big to fit I will send it to a another taxidermist that wants one. I would mount it myself but I'm really not interested in doing so.

I have alot of experience wrestling with the "snapper problem". With a trout pond and many snappers around, I have live trapped three of the monsters. While very strong and dangerous, I have live trapped 12, 14" and 15" diameter snappers successfully. They are elusive as heck, but it does work. The live traps are stronger than the snappers that can fir inside (probably a max of a 17" turtle). Bait with a plastic container (with a bunch of holes drilled in it) with chicken gizzards or even hot dogs. THEN, submerse 3/4 of the trap in the water (leave 1/4 in the air, so they can breathe). THEN, wait and wait. It may take many days, but eventually they can't resist the smell and they go for it. I successfully caught three big snappers using this method. I then re-locate them several miles away.

My latest catch of a 12-13" snapper was using a large fishing net with 20 ft. of 1" pvc duct taped to it. It took me 5 tries to grab that bugger as he always dove. But he seemed to like floating at the surface and since it is only a 60 x 225 ft pond, he finally got close to shore and I nabbed him! Good luck.

So far I've had fish chunks disappear off of the hooks. I think the hooks are too large and I'm going to a smaller size. I have no catfish or crayfish in the pond so I think it has to be the snapper. A friend is supposed to lend me a turtle trap but he hasn't showed up yet.

Cecil, if you can get a "routine" going, like fish for the snapper at set times of the day, and in the same area, I would guess you can get him condition to the sight, smell, and sound. Then you can have a chance of getting a good hook-set on him.

We've used small (#10 or #12) treble hooks under a 20 oz pop bottle baited with liver. Change it every day. Tie a string around the hook, add the liver and tie the liver on as well...keep the gills from pecking it off. A small weight and the hook set at a foot or so deep works well.

A hoop net is the best bet, though. Bait with fresh carp, drum or buffalo, cut up...lasts for MAYBE 2 days at most. Fresh bait is best.