Lately, the method of noodling for snapping turtles has gained a bit of fame with the introduction of the show “Wild Man” on NatGeo where one of my fellow Kentuckians demonstrated his ability to capture snapping turtles simply by feeling for them and then lifting them from the mud. As always with harvesting wild game, be sure to check local laws and regulations and follow them. As long as you have a strong back or a few friends and a good dose of hardheadedness, it can be done. They will take most baits and hook themselves pretty easily. Fish, turtles, snakes, frogs, salamanders, lizards, birds, and rodents are all fair game.Ĭatching a snapping turtle is not difficult except for the actual “catching” part. This includes just about anything that moves. Though it will ambush prey snapping quickly at any passing fish or small animal they can and will eat other things living or dead. Their highly adaptive nature has made the snapping turtle a very opportunistic feeder. Being cold-blooded reptiles, they like to sun themselves just as much as a snake or alligator would. Occasionally you may see the turtles sitting on a floating or partially submerged log. It’s a safe assumption that if that piece of water is within their range they are either in the water or just haven’t found it yet. It may be difficult to tell if a pond or lake in your area has snapping turtles. What makes snapping turtles so ubiquitous is their ability to live in just about any hole that holds water, mud, and something to eat. But back to my point, which is, I still remember that with a lead slug in its head and being separated from the body, it was still snapping. That turtle was large enough that eight year old me could have easily ridden on its back. The revolver barked and the turtle gave no additional resistance. With much effort they were finally able to get the turtle up and get a shot off. 357 Magnum firepower) of a neighbor and soon they made slow progress in getting the turtle to shore. They will essentially use the mud to anchor themselves into place. This is a common tactic of snapping turtles. Only a day or so passed before we went back and Dad realized he had caught the snapping turtle but could not muster enough strength to pull it from the mud. He baited the hook with one of the few bluegills we were able to catch. Later Dad set a trot-line with heavy tarred line and a large hook. The line broke soon after but not before a massive moss-covered head emerged and seemed to part the water. One day Dad got hung in this spot and pulled and pulled hoping to dislodge the hangup. In addition we would occasionally get hung up where there were no sunken limbs. Our favorite fishing hole kept getting worse by the day one summer to a point where it was difficult to catch even a single bluegill (and we weren’t keeping any). When I was about eight years old I experienced this firsthand. One piece of snapping turtle wisdom is correct though once their head is severed they can and will still snap for quite a while afterward. Here in Kentucky and throughout much of the south you’ll hear the saying, “meaner than a snapping turtle.” I’ve picked some up that couldn’t even be bothered to open their mouths or hiss and others snapped and squirmed and fought with reckless abandon. It’s thought that the snapping turtles survived the eruption of at least one supervolcano so its ability to adapt to changing conditions is not without precedent. The aptly named common snapping turtle has a wide range and can be found in southern Canada, northern Mexico, and west out to the Rocky Mountains. But we’d often catch them as they crossed a road from one wetland to another, and when holding one it’s hard not to feel like you are holding onto an ancient wizened being even if they do seem slow and dumb. A lot of people in my neck of the woods consider them a nuisance as they can play havoc with waterfowl. In some parts of the United States it’s easy to take the snapping turtle for granted because they are so common. It makes one wonder how many species the lowly snapping turtle watched rise and fall. And by most accounts mankind was less than human and still relegated to the trees. Grass was sweeping across the continents and giant tropical forests were shrinking to the equatorial belts. When the first of the snapping turtles roamed the lands during the Oligocene epoch in the Tertiary period of the Cenozoic era some 40 million years ago, they emerged onto a changing earth.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |