I belt Keith Daniels still makes hoop nets. Youre probably close enough to drive to his shop to pick em up.

Turtle traps in Ohio need either a 4inch mesh or a 6 inch escape ring.

I made my own traps, it's not hard. They are 1 foot high, 2 feet wide and 48 inches long. Net throat (you can make it from a landing net replacement net) ( or buy a real good one from Nichols Net) and a hog panel flap door in the rear for easy turtle removal. I use 1/2 inch galvanized electrical condit for front and back frame. 4x8 opening on top reinforced with a piece of hog panel lets out small turtles and allows you to set the trap underwater and hide it with seaweed so it is not visible to passerbys, turtles stick out their heads for air. Also allows for a rise in water levels of 12 inches or so without drowning turtles. Bait goes under a wire flap in the back of the trap. I use 1x1 or 1x2 wire. Using 2x4 wire or even 4x4 wire will allow turtles heads to get stuck underwater and then they drown. I also use net traps but prefer my cages. 13 keepers in the one trap shown. Eric

Shipping costs as much as the trap. I used to sell them and send them all over the country till the shipping went crazy. I made mine collapsible and they had to be put together. I sent instructions on how to do it with a VHS video.

MN DNR decided there weren't that many snappers in MN and if you had a commercial license you could keep it unless you ever let it lapse. Then, it became non-renewable. If you want to trap a turtle to eat you have to buy a recreational turtle license. You are allowed 3 turtles. I bought a recreational license, set two traps. In one trap was 4 snappers; the other trap had 3. This was an overnight setting. That same year I set a trap in the Mississippi river by my home. I had 7 snappers and 3 rubber backs in one of the traps. So much for the DNR's shortage of snappers.

BTW,

I made my traps out of 2X4 mesh. The trap is 2' wide by 2' high and 4' long. I made it so it would collapse making it easier to haul more than one. I never liked the net style traps.

we used to make a plywood cap for the truck bed, bungee cord 40 collapsible traps on top of that, and toss the turtles in through the tailgate, under the plywood cover. bait went in 5 gallon buckets just inside the tailgate. mostly all bridge trapping. traps were all 2x4 mesh with a few 4x4 holes in the top panel, no webbing was used. usually set a couple inches under water to hide the trap, and allow turtles to reach the surface to breathe. very efficient.

Eric, so much great info, thanks. Was wondering, instead of using the net throat would it be possible to use the front panel as the in and then make the side with the throat on it a access door?

When I first started I used a flap style front door but often the first turtle caught would jam up the flap door and not let others in. The only way to get a better catch rate was to face the in-door towards the bank and the back end toward deeper water. When the turtle realizes he is caught he stays on the end of the trap closer to deep water and not plug up the flap. Only thing was not as many would go around to the shallow end to enter the trap. Net throats are the way to go.
I have played with snaring snappers, using all different things to make a cubby out of and snaring the front. Problem is you need a big loop (so small turtles do not knock it down) and the bait pretty far from the snare as the bigger the snapper the longer the neck.
Sometimes the best bait is a female turtle in the trap. I had a big snapper in a small pond once that I was called in to catch. He would not enter a trap for fish bait so I brought in a female from elsewhere and put her in trap. Big one was in trap before I could get the truck started.

Thanks eric, is it a big deal to make the throats?

I used to make turtle traps by taking a 4' by 4' piece of chicken wire and making a tube out of it. I would tie a flat piece of heavy, black plastic mesh on one end, so that I could easily untie it, by loosening a few metal bag ties. On the other end, I would wire on a small landing net. I would stretch the net towards the back with a string on both sides and tie the strings off. I would then cut a slit between the 2 strings, to let the turtles through when they pushed. I put an empty 2 liter bottle, in the back end, to keep it above the water, so the turtles could breathe. It cost about $10.00 to make a trap.

I usually used half a carp or filleted fish carcasses as bait. I targeted mostly painted turtles, but would catch large number of snappers and softshells too. I never caught more than 1 large snapper at a time, but would catch lots of smaller snappers at a time.

If I made a snapping turtle trap today, since I can no longer keep and sell painted turtles, I would use horse fence for the tube and top flight netting for the throat and back. Made that way they would be fairly indestructible, still relatively cheap and I could make them much bigger.

Keith