B&B, Try building a double or single funnel trap like a minnow trap but with openings large enough for a large turtle and bait it with chicken entrails. If you aren't familiar with these traps, they're basically a tube made of small-mesh expanded metal. You then fold the same wire into a funnel shape with an opening large enough to let your prey in , but small enough that they're discouraged or confused when trying to get out. Most also hinge in the middle to allow opening\dumping your catch. If you decide to try one keep about 1\2 of the trap out of the water so they can get some air. There is also a tilt-board trap just for turtles, but I'm not familiar with the design, so you prob. need to Google it.
Blades&Bullets,
When I was a chap we used a trot line for snapping turtle. Take a heavy cord (or rope for that matter) and stretch it across the pond or river you want to trap, keeping it about 16 inches off the water and tight. Then every 15 feet (or so) place a drop line off the rope with a large hook (up to a 1 1/4 inch opening) with a piece of beef heart, kidney etc. After you have placed the 5 to 8 lines across the pond/river you will have to adjust the drop line again due to the additional weight of the bait. You will want the bait to be almost sitting on top of the water. Trot lines used on a river will have to be checked twice a day due to the current and the turtles drowning. Ponds are a once a day proposition, we never had a turtle drown on a pond. We were told as kids that you couldn't (or the adults wouldn't) eat a turtle that had been dead for even a short period of time, something about the physical make up of the turtle and the fact that bacteria (?) set in quickly. Whether this was fact, an old wives tale, or just a way to get us to check the trot line often is a matter of conjecture.
We had excellent results with this method, and as the fellow says in the video posted here, the meat is truly exceptional, but you have to work for it!! It takes about an hour to properly clean a snapping turtle but as I stated, it is well worth the effort. Good luck and God bless. cordell P.S. If you want the proper way to clean a turtle, and a recipe drop me a PM. cordell
you could just go fishing with me lol, i couldnt tell you how many snappers i have caught while fishing for catfish. one day i caught one and it was being pretty calm so i tried to take the hook out and he got me but didnt hold on so i just cut the line and did the best i could do for it and threw it back, THE VERY NEXT CAST i caught him again with that hook still in his mouth so i knew it was the same one. i cut the line and threw him back. n iv caught plenty more since, its gotten to the point where its not like HOLY CRAP I CAUGHT A TURTLE but more like oh another one lol
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DEWmocracy, the few, the proud, the GREEN
We use the trot line method cordell explained but hold it just a bit higher off the water... then when the turtle comes lookin, we have our bow fishin rigs ready.
when i was 10 we cot over 50 of them with fishing poles, we really casted right over them alittle ways and realled them in and snagged them, but don't know anything as far as trapping them go, sorry.
Sorry dude, I got nothin'
