I have only come across three or four of these critters and they ain't pretty. :-O
Stolen from Yahoo!
“A fisherman in Oklahoma was targeting catfish in Mill Creek at Eufala Lake when he got a huge surprise at the end of his line. Emphasis on huge.
Dave Harrell of Edmond, Oklahoma, hooked into a gigantic, scary, prehistoric-looking, can-do-damage-with-its-jaws alligator snapping turtle, known as the largest freshwater turtle by weight in the world.
Harrell hooked the beast and brought it to the boat. Then, his friend Audey Clark of Norman somehow wrestled it into the boat so a photo could be taken of Harrell holding up his catch, which isn’t recommended, by the way.
The photo was sent to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and it was subsequently posted on its Facebook page where it has been getting a lot of attention. These turtles are not uncommon in Oklahoma, but something this big doesn’t become news that often, a ODWC spokesman told GrindTV Outdoor.
As is protocol for this protected species, the anglers released the live turtle back into the water.
Harrell is a weightlifter, so he estimated the weight of the alligator snapping turtle as being about 100 pounds. They generally reach 150 to 175 pounds.
It is believed that alligator snapping turtles, which get their name from the keels on their shells that look like ridges on an alligator’s back, are capable of living to 200 years old, though an estimate of 80 to 120 years is more likely. They’ve lived up to 70 years in captivity.
And yes, they can be dangerous, according to Michael Bergin of the ODWC information and education division.
“As a general rule, they’re not dangerous if you avoid them, and they will avoid you as well,” Bergin told GrindTV Outdoor in a phone interview. “If you do go to messing with one or if maybe you get too close to one and you don’t see it and it does decide to bite you, it can be very dangerous.
“They have some real powerful jaws that can really injure a person. Because of the strength in their jaws, they can easily damage the skin and sometimes worse. You hear stories of people getting their finger nearly bit off by a turtle and that’s not an exaggeration.
“For the most part, they’re going to avoid people. I would certainly never advise anyone to handle the turtle as that guy did. He had it in a way it wasn’t going to get him, but most people aren’t going to be able to [handle] a turtle like that.
“You can’t tell, but the neck on that turtle can come out a lot further than that and they can definitely injure a person.”
Bergin advises anyone hooking into a turtle like this to simply cut the line and leave the hook.
“That hook inside the turtle will eventually work itself out or rust itself out, and the turtle will be fine,” Bergin said.
And so will all your body parts.
That's a lot of Turtle Soup!
Okies and their fishin'....
I don't think I've ever been catfishin' that I didn't have to cut a snapping turtle loose. Just a fact of life in Oklahoma. Some turtles are tasty if prepared correctly.
What I don't understand is my fellow Okies desire to put on cut-offs and a worn out Def Leppard t-shirt for a noodlin' session. With creatures like that one in the pic crawling around down there I can't see why anybody would want to blindly stick their arm in a submerged murky hole, with hopes of finding a fish...
Some of us are just flat crazy. o.O
Okies and their fishin'....
> I don't think I've ever been catfishin' that I didn't have to cut a snapping turtle loose. Just a fact of life in Oklahoma. Some turtles are tasty if prepared correctly.
>
> What I don't understand is my fellow Okies desire to put on cut-offs and a worn out Def Leppard t-shirt for a noodlin' session. With creatures like that one in the pic crawling around down there I can't see why anybody would want to blindly stick their arm in a submerged murky hole, with hopes of finding a fish...
>
> Some of us are just flat crazy. o.O
risk/reward?
This is my middle son Jacob. Hes 10 miles south of being an okie and yes he noodles.
Okies and their fishin'....
Man, that thing's big and mean looking!
The fish is good sized too. 😉
File this under things that can end badly.
Back in my commercial fishing days when I first came up to Alaska twenty plus years ago I was working on a long liner out in Dutch Harbor and it was the end of the season and everyone's spirits were high. I noticed a rather large seagull on a rail just above my head and the bird had no idea I was there so I grabbed it from below and started carrying it around under my arm introducing it to the rest of my shipmates as my good friend Jonathan. I had no idea that a seagull could stretch it neck and turn 180 degrees. His neck went from about 6" to 12", turned 180 and sank that hook ended beak right into my nose and refused to let go. If you ever look at a seagull's beak, it looks just like that snapping turtle. I couldn't let go for fear he would take my nose off and he wasn't going to let go until I did. Stalemate. After several minutes of this and a riot of laughter (at my expense of course), the seagull and I reached a mutual decision to let go and part ways and the blood from my mangled nose pored. Needless to say, I've learned my lesson and you will not ever see me hold a snapping turtle in the above described fashion, period. +o(
Okies and their fishin'....
Cripes Roadie, that Boy's got more muscle in one arm than I do in my entire body! 😉
My father caught one in the Flint River on a limb line that had a head the size of a basketball. He bit the end off of paddle. Ugly doesn't come close to describing those things.
Andy
NEO
Is he still playing football for NEO at Miami?
