we have no idea the true age of these turtles but figured they were over 35 to 40 years old.


Advarage live span of a COMMON SNAPPER in the wild is 26 years

What does the water temp need to be to get the turtles moving in the spring?

Just curious how the above will affect the hunting and trapping of common snappers in my home state.
With the season re-opening July 1st, one can only speculate what changes in the coming months or years to come.
Regardless, I am looking forward to the upcoming season and hope you will have a good season, for those that do go forth. Be safe on the water !

Angela

Big turtle Angela...good job!

Why wouldn't you just count the rings on one of the sections of the shell, Newt? Just like counting the rings on a tree.
If that isn't a true way to tell a snappers age, then why do the 'experts' on the internet tell us it is?
Google: How to tell the age of a snapping turtle and that is exactly what comes up. Surely you've heard this, a man with your experience?

That is troubling....

I agree, ShaneT. I'll keep you posted if I hear anymore about it.

Part of turtle trapping down here is releasing swamp lizards.

I caught and released 54 here the first year I trapped turtles. Learned to do a better job of avoiding, but still caught some of them. Lost many traps being unrepairable on the big ones.

I hear ya Kirk. Any tips for avoiding them? Seems that making sure the bait is submerged helps. I think this is number 9 or 10 so far this year.

That's a lot of 'gators, Kirk and sounds like a lot of damage to your nets. Those things aren't cheap !

I don,t know a good way to avoid them. I just didn,t put the traps out sometime.

I usually was like shane. usually got 2 to 4 traps ruined a month. The really big ones balled the net and rings up the size of a basket ball.

They weren,t too bad to release as long as they were under 6 ft.

I think I paid 115$ for the nets. Usually ran 20 nets twice a day. Used 30" and 36" nets. Never experienced a down turn in turtle numbers and never saw another turtle trapper while trapping.

Restrictions are too great now for me. State ruined what was a good thing for all.

I'm not Newt but the whole counting the rings on the shell most likely isn't accurate, I remember my dad mentioning it years ago as a old wives tale. Google a little more and you will find its not a accurate way to determine a turtles age.

Kirk, the state is slowly phasing out commercial harvest up here, there will be turtles here long after the people are gone regardless if they shut it down or leave it open, to much water most places to endanger them.

I thought gators could be sold also?Why release them?

Well here, you have to either have nuisance tags, landowner tags, or be drawn for a lottery. Alligator season is only about a month long for the landowner and lottery portions. The particular body of water I am on now is public water that is not on the list for the lottery so only nuisance tags would apply. I am about to start making some calls to see what the process is for having it included in the lottery. I live on the body of water in question and it is overrun with gators. I am also looking into what it takes to be able to apply for nuisance tags.

The land of 10,000 lakes ? lol I'm guessing so !

Actually closer to 15,000 depending on the size of the water used for estimate. The northern half of the state isn't great turtle water density wise although the turtles tend to run larger. Lots of lakes here but not all suited well for turtles, most of the turtle trappers up here that catch a lot target rivers or did anyway, not many guys left up here that catch big numbers anymore (partially market driven, and guys are getting old and dying off) There are only about 20 commercial license holders left. Do we have less turtles here than 50 yrs ago? yep but to shut it down in fear of endangering them isn't going to happen up here, wish the state felt otherwise.

The biggest killers of turtles are not the trapper. It is coon, otter, and crows.

One family of coon will destroy more turtle eggs in their lifetime, reducing potential turtles than a trapper would catch in his lifetime.

Otter will bite the heads off of turtles just for the fun of it. Why don,t they make open season on otter and coon with no limits, if they are so concerned. Allow the killing of crows with no restriction, if they want to protect them.

If the states DNR really wanted to raise turtle numbers, there would be a strong push and support for trapping. Even a bounty system on coon in summer during turtle nesting season.