snapper

[Airoh]

I saw a snapping turtle in my pond yesterday. He is about 15" wide. When I told the wife last night she had only one comment... Get it Out Of There!
I do not have a clue how to do it. I would like to get him alive but that is not necessary.
Does anyone have any experience or suggestions?:confused:

[flatsman]

You can make a live trap. Someone here should have some plans. Good luck;)

[Neal]

If live trap doesn't work I would recommend .22 to the head.

Neal

[Mr. 16 gauge]

I remember seeing plans for a trap many, many years ago in an old issue of Sports Afield. Basically, it consisted of a wire basket made of chicken wire big enought to hold the turtle in question. Then, a square frame was made out of logs, and the basket attached to the frame. Finally, nails where tapped in at an angle to the basket, and left sitting out high enough so that the turtle could crawl over them to get into the basket, but when he tried to get out, the angle of the nails prevented him from doing so. The trap is placed in the water (it floats due to the logs), and is baited with, if my memory serves me correctly, chicken livers or gizzards or some such thing. The bait needs to be suspended via wires into the middle of the trap, otherwise the turtle will just feed off of the bottom of the trap and wont go in. Sorry I can't draw you a picture......hope you get the idea. Good luck and good trapping.:) Got a recipe for turtle soup?;)

[Airoh]

Thanks for the ideas,
There is a rabbit cage full of wood and branches that I put in the pond for fat head minnows to hide in a few years ago.
Looking at and reading the suggestions has me thinking that maybe I could pull it out and rig a one way entry to it with a float attached.
One way or another he has to go.

[TrapperJeff]

A large standard live trap works well also. Placed partially in water, and partially on land. The opening should be towards the water, and the bait should be clipped at the far end, the stinkier the better.

[Youper]

I caught a cooter like the one you describe while pike fishing once in Wisconsin. I was using a 7" perch for bait. The snapper pulled in like a log, but due to the hard mouth was not hooked. The point being that you could also try fishing for him.