Last of my 2018 snapper catch. Rough year catching turtles, so much rain and flooding. I like low water levels, concentrates them in deeper holes in the rivers I trap in. First year that I didn't get a turtle over 50 pounds.

neat pic. what becomes of them, soup?

Looks like you have a truck load there Eric .I have done a bit of that for my own use in the past . I never thought about changing water levels . But I know I do better when general fur trapping when the water levels are low .When the water level is low some rain does not have much effect on the overall conditions. When the levels are high to start with a 1/2 inch rainfall can mess things up quick

Good job! Here in MN you can only take 3 per day and 3 in possession. Our DNR practically considers them an endangered species! Which is ridiculous. I fish a lot and see snappers almost every day I go in most lakes and rivers.

That's a cool picture. Do you have holding tanks to put them in? How do you process them?

Just interesting to me.

B

All kinds of meat uses, soup is probably the main one though.
Don't have the exact weight of turtles in the truck yet, load this size is somewhere between 3500 and 4000 pounds.
I think that turtle trapping is harder physical work than pelt trapping. Most of these turtles I carried in a garbage can anywhere from 20 to 200 yards from waterway to truck. At 66 years old I do 2 nights in a row then take a night or 2 off. It is always the thought of "How big a turtle is in the next trap?" that keeps me going.

We normally get only a few inches of rain in July and August but this summer it has been almost 30 inches, a few times 5 inches in a day.

Always enjoy your post and pics eric, very cool!

I keep them in spring houses, where they cooled milk in the days before electricity. Sell them alive.

That will make a lot of soup. Very cool picture.

Eric I am old enough to know about spring houses .The farm I was born on had a spring that ran into the milk storage room .That consisted of a 2 foot deep cement water holding tank .The milk was keep in metal cans and kept in the water From there it ran through a pipe into a large wooden holding trough that was in the summer house .In there we keep things like watermelon along with items that where jarred and need to be kept cool .Than a pipe carried the water underground for about 20 yards into a metal trough in the barn yard where the cattle drank from . There it again went underground into a small spring stream .Once my Dad caught a mink in that trickle of water .Thanks for posting the picture .That brings back memories from more than 50 years ago

I think many many of us remember spring houses.....i have one still...sad thing is around here many springs are getting contaminated due to field runoff...mine was rebuilt by Amish 15 yrs ago...look plain? yeah yeah i know about the moss n mildew

Spring Houses were a death trap to small farm kids, my father lost 2 cousins in them in the 1920's. Toddlers would fall in and drown if somebody forgot to close and latch the door.

i actually pump mine into my house too.

Felt so bad when I saw the pics I bleachwater scrubbed

West River Rouge So today checking out Trapperman during the day was a motivator to accomplish something that needed taking care of. . I hope you don't mind if I use that to explain why I am always checking out what is happening on Trapperman myself.

That's a lot of snapping turtles!

no problem

How's the market?
Heard it was getting hard to move them.

great pic. thanks for sharing

How do you get them all in the truck like that?