sanpping turtle

I have a small pond next to my house,about 100 by 100 feet. I saw the other day that a snapping turtle has taken up residence. What would you do ,are they hard on the bass and gills that are in there? your opinions please.  

chicken neck (or really any part), 4/0 hook, heavy line, and a gallon jug gives you a trotline...pull him in and pop a round in his noodle...or extend his neck and chop it off.  If you don't mind it rotting in the pond then just shoot it.  It's hard to beat turtle soup.

ORIGINAL: Bogeyjoker

chicken neck (or really any part), 4/0 hook, heavy line, and a gallon jug gives you a trotline...pull him in and pop a round in his noodle...or extend his neck and chop it off.  If you don't mind it rotting in the pond then just shoot it.  It's hard to beat turtle soup.

http://fishinpa.com/repamp.html

Before you go throw out a line, this link has the requirement for hook size (bottom of the page) and the legal season for catching turtles. It starts July 1st and you need a hood 3.5 inch long with a 1 inch gap. (4/0 does not meet that requirement)

But one turtle will not put any noticable damage on your fish population, my guess is there are and always have been more than a few turtles in that water.

http://fishandboat.com/anglerboater/2007/04julyaug/46snapping.pdf

I think alot of misconception riddles this species of turtle. This is published from the PFBC the last paragraph, or more importantly the last sentence of this two page article should be of some interest.

Again your fish population has nothing to fear, the turtle cant swim faster than the fish (i am not saying ti wont catch a fish in its mouth, but its efforts are more rewarded by other means of catching food), it would rather eat somthing dead or a plant.

Do a google search there is alot of information of them (very interesting animals), and when july rolls around if you still want him out of there, catch him and eat him. They sure are good eating.

Although they will eat almost anything dead or alive,they are of more benifit than dangerous & really are amazing animals if you think about it. I doubt that they would do much harm to the fish pop.,however they can be tough on ducks & geese.I have caught them by hand for many years & learned to respect them,but have no problem with eating them either. But to kill them & let them go to waste is a shame in my opinion. live & let live. sam

They are the vultures of the waterways doing their job of cleaning up the dead and disabled.

ORIGINAL: treedaddy

I have a small pond next to my house,about 100 by 100 feet. I saw the other day that a snapping turtle has taken up residence. What would you do ,are they hard on the bass and gills that are in there? your opinions please.  

 
  Like many relatively strange and unusual creatures treedaddy, a shroud of mystery and misinformation surrounds these animals and others. Please don't get sucked into the many myths that surround snappers and other animals. Personally if it were my pond, I'd leave the snapper as it is. If you feel compelled to do so, make soup out of him. Turtle soup is delicious and there is nothing wrong with harvesting fish or game for consumption. Whatever you do, don't kill it out of sheer ignorance that is based on myths, misinformation, ignorance or hatred. Too many species have already came close or already met their demise because of misinformation.There were many good comments posted by many members on this site later on in this thread. A few turtles are not going to decimate your fish population in your pond. That is not an opinion , it is fact. Of course you will always find those that say the snappers will wipe out the fish in your pond including all of the other turtles, snappers are poisonous [ how ridicoulous] and many other non-truths. 

Common snapping turtles do not have those appedeges on thier tongues, Alligator snappers do,they are more common in the southern U.S.A.although I have heard of some in South East Penna. sam

They aren't going to hurt anything in there, they are a natural part of the system

ORIGINAL: doubletaper

Once I was swimming cross Turtle creek
Many snappers all around my feet
Sure was hard swimming 'cross that thing
With both hands holdin' my ding-a-ling

LMAO, I've been thinking (and singing) that since this thread started...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKZcLEY2qEY

This argument kind of reminds me of the "mudpuppy salamanders". I've caught a few and had people come running as I was about to pick them up practically swearing I would be poisoned. I've also had to stop a few people from killing them for this as well. And then, there is the little bit about Copperheads cross breeding with Black Rat Snakes. This is biologically impossible. Copperheads give birth to live young, Rat Snakes lay eggs. Sure, sometimes people have bad allergic reactions to black snake bites, but they cannot interbreed with any live young bearing snake. I was also ridiculed once for catching a copperhead in a yard and relocating it to the mountainous woods far away from human inhabitation. I heard things like "It's the devil, God put it on the ground for a reason and you should have shot it". I laughed til I cried. No need to kill anything, even a venomous snake, if you can simply and safely relocate it. Now, I can understand if they are found in your house or if children are present, but don't kill anything simply for nothing. People should be a little more responsible in their actions. Don't just jump to conclusions, get the facts straight.

ORIGINAL: Grendel

My daughtewr is raising two baby snappers - one male and one female - awesome little things. She will cry the day we have to release them into the river.

I never could tell what sex, snappers were when they were small,but I think that you should expose them to some sunlight occasionaly or thier shells will get soft & get a fungus on them.I used to feed mine nightcrawlers & got a charge out of watching them gulp them down. Mine would come over to me when I would tap on the aquarium,but til the day that I released it, he would still try to nip my hand when I was playing with it, even tho he was only the size of a silver dollar. sam

I had one for about a year. Found him on the road about the size of a half dollar, released him back to the local lake the next summer at about 4" across. He ate turtle pellets, minnows, crayfish, feeder shrimp, guppies, dead fish, hotdogs, veggies, etc. It was pretty good at not trying to take my fingers when being fed, cleaned, or just manhandled until he got over 3" across. He was messy though and had to clean the tank once a week.

BTW - Pretty sure all snappers are female.

I was waiting for that.Took longer than I thought it would. lol sam

ORIGINAL: Porktown

BTW - Pretty sure all snappers are female.