School me on snapping turtles. There has been four caught in the Pend Orielle Lake/River this summer. Since we have never had them I know nothing about them. How cold of water can they live in, how do you catch them and any other general knowledge?

As a kid, I'd catch adults in up to 18" +/- of water by going in after them, approaching from behind, and grabbing the tail. Once you get the tall, just don't let go. Pull backwards to keep their bitey end away from you.
In deeper water, I'd pass since they get the advantage. Deeper water slows you and helps them. They can turn on you quicker than you can move.
Or if its a small creek run to shallows and then jump in after them.

In this modern age with the interwebs, I've read you're not supposed to pick them up by the tail. Its too much weight on small tail bones, supposedly it can injure them. I do remember popping picking them up (like popping a joint), so I assume that's probably true. You're supposed to pick them up by a back leg. But I've never tried grabbing a leg. I still grab the tail and just minimize lift.

Last year I learned they move around quite a bit when needed. During drought the creek passing through my land dried up, but the springs on my ground kept a couple hundred yards of it with water. One day I saw 6 adult snappers in that short stretch of creek. Apparently all the turtles in the area came to my stretch of creek. When the rain came back and they had more options, they all disappeared again. I'm back to seeing one on rare occasion, but I don't really go looking for them.

I trap them in a turtle trap. fresh bait works best for me, when my bait is used more then a day I start getting more painted turtles and fewer snappers. They seem prefer ponds and lakes with softer bottoms. The do fine in northern climates and are tuff as nails.

Newt is the turtle guy on here. The real deal.

Or Eric Space.

Either of those fellas will be the best.

I caught them when I was a kid in Boy Scouts on a trip back to the boundary waters by picking them up by shell. Seems much safer to me than the tail or backleg method, but I only ever grabbed a couple dozen.

Thanks guys. Anybody else have any info?

I trapped snappers for many years until MN banned trapping them recently. I was going to butcher them and eat them, so I have no problem with grabbing them by the tail. I can't imagine holding on to them by a back leg, they are too strong to hang onto that way, especially a large one. I used to trap them, hook them in the late fall as they go into the mud for winter. My hook pole consisted of a probing rod on one end and a hook on the other end.

If you trap them use frozen bait, it will last longer than fresh bait. My traps were 4 feet long, 2 feet high, and 2 feet wide made out of 2X4 inch mesh of welded wire. Make sure you leave the top of the trap several inches out of the water or the turtles will drown. They need to get air in the summer. In the spring when the ice is going out the shoreline will open up first. The snappers will come out to start getting air next to the shore. They are very slow at that time of the year. Make sure to check your regulations in your state to be sure it's legal to take them at different times of the year.

I hear of people using hooks baited with fish suspended with a jug. I never tried that method because a smaller turtle to small to take could get hooked and getting the hook out of its mouth would be tough. I think it would be a death sentence for them.

Are they worth the time a harvest and cleaning to eat. I'd like to try it.

Snappers are great eating. You get light meat and dark meat. Some people say they taste like chicken and some say they taste more like pork. When asked, I always say they taste like turtle to me.

They are great in soups and stews. Takes a pretty good sized one to get anything but chunk meat. Several flavor or texture meats in a single turtle. Our young son HAD to rescue a nest of eggs laid in the driveway on year so we moved them to different location where he waited for them to hatch everyday. They didn’t by late Oct so had to dig them up and put in a bucket of sand and put in the corner of my heated shop. Though by spring he would have forgotten them and I could dump them. In Dec I noticed little black things dropping from the bucket full of sand. More than 20 turtlings hatched and had to feed them the rest of the winter until they could be released come spring with the theme song to “ Born free” playing. What we do for our kids, lol

Years ago, I used to bury the turtle eggs in my garden with a 3" high wooden frame around them. They used to hatch in early fall. Then we would take the baby turtles and release them back into the area they came from.

You have to pic and put the way you found them . if you put them upside down the egg will die

Pulled a few out of beaver conis shell caught in the spring they stunk so bad from hibernation, leaches in the leg areas mud-moss thick on the shells the odor about made me gag. Nope I ain’t putting that in my mouth I released them unless I had folks that wanted them I’d give them away then.

M&M furs would let them walk around the shop to clean out I had no time for that nonsense.

to handle safely, grab tail with right hand, run left hand up the shell towards the head, and curl your fingers under the shell just above the head. does less harm to the turtle, and they cant bite or claw you this way. handled many thousands this way.

36lb Ib in the left hand and 41 in the right