Poor Turtle

[oldfella1962]

Friend of mine drug one about the size of a dish pan out of a lake in Pine Mountain and let his rod get too close... ended his fish'n the rest of the day. We couldn't keep his 7 year old son away from it so I grabbed a hoe out of the back of my truck and stuck in in front of that turtle and told the boy "Think of this as your leg bone."..it cut that old hickory handle in half in a blink of a eye... "boy" is near 40 now and still won't get close to a little box turtle.

 

[Geffellz18]

Not sure this is a gator, but it's sure the biggest I've ever seen come from fresh water.

View attachment 1224886

Saw one at the BPS headquarters store in MO years ago. Thing was so big I thought for sure it couldn’t be real. IIRC-The descriptor sign said is was about 550lbs.
Was a meeeeaaaaaan looking joker.

 

[lampern]

Snappers are pretty much the only water turtles we have here in the western NC mountains, too, except for a few softshells in a couple of very localized places.

Lake Adger and Lake James have cooters and some big ones.

Not sure about west of the continental divide.

 

[Mexican Squealer]

It’s funny, the gators and moccasins don’t “bother” me working around ‘em at the crawfish farm…but on more than one occasion I have stepped on something big that walked with me on its back. Always waiting for that sucker to grab me by the ankle.

 

[Batjack]

It’s funny, the gators and moccasins don’t “bother” me working around ‘em at the crawfish farm…but on more than one occasion I have stepped on something big that walked with me on its back. Always waiting for that sucker to grab me by the ankle.

May I refer you to post #20?

 

[NCHillbilly]

Lake Adger and Lake James have cooters and some big ones.

Not sure about west of the continental divide.

I wouldn't call either of those in the mountains, they're foothills reservoirs. Adger is below 1000', and James just barely at 1000'. Whole different scenario than the lakes up in the mountains themselves.

 

[northgeorgiasportsman]

Friend of mine drug one about the size of a dish pan out of a lake in Pine Mountain and let his rod get too close... ended his fish'n the rest of the day. We couldn't keep his 7 year old son away from it so I grabbed a hoe out of the back of my truck and stuck in in front of that turtle and told the boy "Think of this as your leg bone."..it cut that old hickory handle in half in a blink of a eye... "boy" is near 40 now and still won't get close to a little box turtle.

Sorry boss, I'm gonna be the one that calls you out on this one. Good story, but I don't buy it.

 

[Batjack]

Sorry boss, I'm gonna be the one that calls you out on this one. Good story, but I don't buy it.

It may take me weeks to go through all of the old pictures I've got in storage from in back in the 80's but I'll find the ones from that Easter weekend and show you.

 

[Bigbendgyrene]

A throwback to the dinosaur days near about. I`ve seen a few, and like the Indigo and 7 foot diamondback, they are most impressive.

Guessing like many on the forum, I've been stomping around woods, creeks, and ponds since I could walk (over 50 years now), and just a couple of encounters have left me in awe / feeling like I'd stepped back in prehistoric times.

One was dropping a 8' alligator off for skinning at a local processor... he told me just to pull it into his big walk-in cooler, and when I opened the door he had the head from a 13' gator in the cooler. Just the sheer size of the head alone in comparison to a pile of other 8', 9' and 10' gators in the cooler was other-worldly.

The other experience was looking out the window at my parents' place when I was a teen and seeing a MASSIVE turtle crossing a dam between two ponds. I took off running to see if I could intercept it, and when I got to it I quickly thought better than trying to keep it from going wherever it darn well pleased. Remember it as having a head bigger than my own, and again looking dinosaur-like relative to any other snapping turtles I had seen before (and had seen a good many). It struck me as something that had to be ancient to grow as big as it had... think that was what struck me the most, was wondering just how old it had to be to have grown as giant as it was.

Living in North Florida, have seen a few big eastern diamondback rattlers that shocked me as well -- one stretching nearly across the entirety of a dirt road, but most shocking was a BIG chunk of one left after getting hit. Wasn't enough of the snake left to get a feel for the actual length but the diameter of the chunk on the road was shocking... would give anything if I could have seen it before being hit.

 

[lampern]

I wouldn't call either of those in the mountains, they're foothills reservoirs. Adger is below 1000', and James just barely at 1000'. Whole different scenario than the lakes up in the mountains themselves.

Good point but they are fed by rivers and streams that come down out of the mountains.

You can see the mountains from both lakes.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Good point but they are fed by rivers and streams that come down out of the mountains.

You can see the mountains from both lakes.

Yep. Lots of difference in water temps, though. Major difference.

Could be the lack of shallow water, too, and no aquatic vegetation. Some of the lakes here are a hundred feet deep just off the bank in places.

 

[Nicodemus]

Good point but they are fed by rivers and streams that come down out of the mountains.

You can see the mountains from both lakes.

So does Lake Seminole. So does a lot of lakes.

 

[Whitefeather]

I wonder

 

[livinoutdoors]

Turtles can be a bit scary at times

 

[JB0704]

Turtles can be a bit scary at times

This’n here looked like an “attack turtle.” I kept my distance and tolt the dogs to run!

 

[JB0704]

We barely escaped

 

[Nicodemus]

This’n here looked like an “attack turtle.” I kept my distance and tolt the dogs to run!


View attachment 1238847

That's a common snapping turtle.

 

[livinoutdoors]

We barely escaped

Man! That right there is why i always carry. If that got ahold of me just dang.

 

[Batjack]

That's a common snapping turtle.

Snap'n be'n in it's name is enough for me to give it a wide path.... unless I got the taste for fried turtle that is.. then I'm step'n over it...grab it by the tail a drop'n it in a pot of scald'n hot water... etc.

 

[livinoutdoors]

Snap'n be'n in it's name is enough for me to give it a wide path.... unless I got the taste for fried turtle that is.. then I'm step'n over it...grab it by the tail a drop'n it in a pot of scald'n hot water... etc.

You ever find any picks of that ol bone snapper?