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

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.