15 lber on 4 lb test

[NJ219bands]

Originally Posted by Broad Bill

Two questions, how do you land snapping turtles with 2 and 4 lb. test which have mouths that can take a person's finger off? Quite a feat. Second question is what do you do with them after you catch them?

Most snappers that haven’t been hooked before don’t know what’s happening when I reel them in and don’t fight. The lake is always very murky so I lead them away from me and grab their tail after I wade out as far as I can go with knee boots. The big ones that have been hooked before are very difficult to land. They make long runs and sometimes hold on to the bottom. If they see me they snap their jaws a lot. I don’t know anyone who wants snappers so I release them in a different location. It’s probably better to cut the line instead of handling them. I caught and relocated 23, 21 and 15 lb snapping turtles 🐢 this year and very fortunate to still have 10 fingers.