I would be more than happy to see any pics of huge snapping turtles. Here are some of my turtle pics..

I don't have a picture, but I do have a story from our trip last year. My wife and I were swimming off a big rock by our campsite. I had just climbed out of the water onto the rock. My wife was just behind me. I turned around and said, "Oh my gosh!" A snapping turtle was just one foot from my wife. She screamed and jumped out of the water, and ran into me, almost causing both of us to fall into the water. The snapper hung around for a very long time, coming up for air every few minutes. I like to tease my wife about her reaction. She always says she was just startled.

I didn't go skinny dipping on that trip...

Nice one. Turtle meat is very tasty!!

This big one got my first northern (off a stringer) on Gift Lake. HUGE snapper, I wish I had something in the picture to give you an idea. The head was bigger than my fist, and the neck larger than my forearm. I've also had a big one come up through our campsite on Horseshoe to lay eggs.

North Kawishiwi River August 2002

those old big ones sure do look prehistoric, cool/unique creature. nice pics

Watched one in my local trout stream a few years ago negotiate a rapids that had to be close to 2 feet across. I must have spent close to a half hour watching him as he moved up against the current, hunting as he went.

The Common Snapping Turtles ya'll have up north ain't got nothing on the Alligator Snappers we have down south.

Disappointment Lake

Had to darken picture to be able to see, but this one pulled some walleye remains off the rocks and had his lunch. Little Shell Lake 2012.

Northern part of Cross Bay Lake, area by the portage to Snipe, 6/24/2010. At first I thought it was a big rock, but then it poked its head up for a portrait. The shell was a good 20-24 inches in diameter at least.

quote RAFA Ranger: "Disappointment Lake

"

Wow! That's a big one.

Shared the portage with this guy on my way to Agnes.

quote AndySG: "The Common Snapping Turtles ya'll have up north ain't got nothing on the Alligator Snappers we have down south.


"

You have got to be kidding me! That is a monster.

This one kept trying to steal our walleyes on Wood Lake. Peristant bastard he was. Thankfully there was a wire mesh "live well" at the campsite but he would crawl on it and push it over trying to get the fish out. A softly thrown rock in his direction finally persuaded him to move on.

Horseshoe lake off of the gunflint.

Found her laying a nest when I woke up one morning.

Here is a video of a snapper on Gebe. Snapper on Gebe

quote Canoe Dude: "Here is a video of a snapper on Gebe. Snapper on Gebe"

That is a really cool video.

quote NickMc: "Shared the portage with this guy on my way to Agnes. "

That snapper looks very similar to my ex-wife.

quote Corsair: "Horseshoe lake off of the gunflint.
Found her laying a nest when I woke up one morning.



I wonder if it was the same campsite as our mama turtle? Back toward the bay leading to Vista:

Agnes Lake, Quetico.

Ouch! Washing dishes in the lake? Stand-by for some comments on that one.
Great pictures everyone.

quote ozarkpaddler: "

quote Corsair: "Horseshoe lake off of the gunflint.
Found her laying a nest when I woke up one morning.




I wonder if it was the same campsite as our mama turtle? Back toward the bay leading to Vista:
"

Nope,

Just south of Caribou, first site on the east side.

This one stole a fish off our stringer while out fishing, then came back that night to try and get our leeches.

Dissapointment - Sitting in lake soaking.
I was sitting in the water on a ledge with my feet hanging over into deeper water. When finsihed I got up and grabbed my towel, turned around and saw a Monster trying to climb up onto the ledge right where I had been sitting. I spooked him, he slid back down into the water. I took a look to see when he was headed, and my gut dropped....

That 30" Monster was perch right under the ledge where my feet were hanging !?!?!!!

quote fitgers1: "Ouch! Washing dishes in the lake? Stand-by for some comments on that one.
Great pictures everyone."

+1

JB

quote jb in the wild: "

quote fitgers1: "Ouch! Washing dishes in the lake? Stand-by for some comments on that one.
Great pictures everyone."

+1


JB"

+1

quote OBX2Kayak: "

quote NickMc: "Shared the portage with this guy on my way to Agnes. "

That snapper looks very similar to my ex-wife."

LOL

Take a look at this monster!!!

quote DuluthPak: " Take a look at this monster!!!"

They are so cute when they are little!

quote luft: "

quote AndySG: "The Common Snapping Turtles ya'll have up north ain't got nothing on the Alligator Snappers we have down south.



"

You have got to be kidding me! That is a monster."

Yea, but you notice how they're holding it way out from themselves to make it appear bigger than it is?

J/K! ;-) That thing is huge.

I had to smack a snapper on the head repeatedly once to get him to release my stringer of fish. I didn't hurt him but I had to bonk him over and over with my knuckle. Scary and fun.

And ya, washing dishes in the lake at camp is like peeing in the lake, at camp. Please -no-

Tom

Does anyone know of anybody that has actually been bit by a snapper while in the BW's?

Oyster giant

quote Canoe Dude: "Here is a video of a snapper on Gebe. Snapper on Gebe"

Very, very cool!

quote bstrege: "

quote RAFA Ranger: "Disappointment Lake


"

Wow! That's a big one."

That's what she said! -Michael Scott

quote MarshallPrime: "

quote bstrege: "

quote RAFA Ranger: "Disappointment Lake



"

Wow! That's a big one."

That's what she said! -Michael Scott"

Skinny dip at your own risk!!!!

quote Diego: "Does anyone know of anybody that has actually been bit by a snapper while in the BW's?"

I haven't met anyone that has been bitten by one but I know that even a regular snapper (not the Alligator variety), full grown will take fingers off with ease. I refuse to approach them with my hands. If I need to persuade one away from me it is always with a stick. I've had snappers bite clean through 2inch thick branch segments.

Last summer I was cleaning crappies on my brothers dock which was half submerged with water up to the top of the boards in between the cracks.
As I was cleaning them the tail would fall between the cracks and I would get a big jerk with something grabbing it. That happened about three timed. Well a big old snapper was sitting under the dock. If my finger would of been between the cracks he would of grabbed that.
Ate a few over the years,they are all right. Cut the head off and the legs would still move for a long time.
Being very old animals,I think in a lot of areas you are eating a chemical time bomb and also filled with mercury.

this guy got a nice northern to eat courtesy of our stringer ;)

quote FoxRiverRat: "this guy got a nice northern to eat courtesy of our stringer ;) "

They're good at that. They must have a good nose.

Any new cute pictures

we have a lot of snappers living in our pond and they like to lay eggs in our yard. One year during our oldest daughters birthday party a huge snapper came up and laid eggs in the kids sandbox. The kids declared her birthday the best one eve... and we didn't even have to to hire a clown lol

they like laying their eggs in the Kawishiwi Lake parking lot and along the road

Jesse Lake-Quetico Provincial Park

This one has a 30 inch pike carcass it it's mouth......

Here's a photo of a large snapper near the border, taken by 7MonthMan on his 7 month solo trip last year. BWCAW Snapper

There was a big one on Maraboeuf this year eating fish scraps from the previous campers who didnt follow the LNT rules.

Meet "Steve" from the narrows site on Cherry

Two Island lake campground a couple of weeks ago.

On Pickerel Lake, south of Emerald Isle (Quetico) Nothing much for scale in the photo; but pretty good sized turtle.

Red Rock lake.

Do not want to mess with this bad boy!!!

This guy made lunch of a small mouth on our stringer on Kahshahapiwi, he hung around most of the day. Needless to say we didn't swim there.

No pictures, but when we were on Gull I cleaned off our fillet on the waters edge. Brought them up to my buddy to start breading, I went back down to rinse my hands. As soon as I squatted down and my headlamp hit the water I was face to face with a huge snapper. It hung out, then had enough and slipped away. Very eery, lol

quote fitgers1: "Ouch! Washing dishes in the lake? Stand-by for some comments on that one.
Great pictures everyone."

Absolutely,
how dare he !!!

Can anyone here tell me how to build a snapper trap. I've heard that you can use tires tied together somehow. Rick

I don't think I grabbed this one quite right. Good thing his neck wasn't much longer.

quote plexmidwest: "I don't think I grabbed this one quite right. Good thing his neck wasn't much longer. "

... and that ain't all! Wow, be careful!

quote 2old4U: "

quote plexmidwest: "I don't think I grabbed this one quite right. Good thing his neck wasn't much longer. "

... and that ain't all! Wow, be careful! "

Heheheheh, that's what I was thinking too (LOL)!

severe shrinkage needed asap!

I remember back in the 70's there used to be an old deteriorated dock with a livewell at the end near the Jasper portage into Alpine. One evening I walked out onto the dock and I was startled when it moved a little. When I looked into the water there was a large snapper that was waiting inside the livewell. It's shell was about 3' long and 2' wide. By far the biggest I've seen live or in a photo. We thought it had to be 100 yrs old.

quote drrick: "Can anyone here tell me how to build a snapper trap. I've heard that you can use tires tied together somehow. Rick"

The Amish farmers over in Indiana ( I'm from Ohio ) didn't like the snappers eating all of their ducklings each year from their farm ponds, so they had no problem with us trapping them. We just used cow neck meat for bait. Used a shark hook tied to some heavy duty nylon line. We tied the line onto wood stakes. Just toss the hooked up cow neck meat out and stake down the wood stake. Then we would come back later and look for lines that were moving. We used to catch some the size of the old garbage can lids.
Then when we got them home, one guy would pull their head out of the shell with pliers while the guy would snip it's head off with tree limb cutters. Then we would hang them to bleed them out. My buddy's dad usually cleaned the meat out of the turtle.

Went to pull up a stringer after retrieving a couple of my boys on my most recent trip, and most of a nice smallmouth was gone. Checking the area, I spotted the largest snapper I had ever seen (nothing like the one in the other photo here, but huge by my standards). Its shell was more than two feet across and probably three long. We were camped at the far east end of Hustler, near the portage to Oyster.

I hadn't started using my phone as a camera regularly at that point in the trip, or I would have taken some video. I wish I had a picture. My boys were dumbstruck. At first they say another large one (c. 18" diameter) and thought that's the one I was raving about. Once they spotted the monster, none of them would go into the water.

When I got home, I spent a couple of hours studying videos on how to clean a snapping turtle. Next time, our food barrel will be lighter, but our bellies will be heavier.