I was fishing on Cisco Lake (northwest side of the Cisco Chain) last year for Northern Pike and on my 5^th or 6^th cast I got a good hit, set the hook and the way my rod bent over I thought I had hooked a nice Pike or Muskie. As I reeled my monster catch to the boat with excitement, Monica was about to net whatever was on the end of my line and when my big fish came to the surface, I could see it wasn’t a fish at all, but a turtle and I blurted out YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME. Then I realized it was a SNAPPING TURTLE and my vocabulary turned into a few choicer words. The snapping turtle is the largest, meanest and heaviest turtle Wisconsin has and this is NOT the kind of turtle you want inside your boat. They have very powerful jaws, and they are called snapping turtles for a reason.

For those who might say, “why didn’t you just grab the back of its shell and remove the lure” NOT ME. And who ever said turtles are slow, LIE a lot.  I have encountered snapping turtles before and tried to remove one by picking it up from behind with a shovel. That turtle actually came off the ground about three inches and turned around in midair.  I swear that is the truth. Let me tell you this about snapping turtles. They are vicious, fast and that long neck and powerful beak (THAT CAN TAKE A FINGER OFF) can reach to the middle of the top of their shell and I might be wrong, but I believe they can spit poison at you too. Ok, just joking about the poison thing but I truly dislike snapping turtles.

If I would have caught a different turtle (WISCONSIN HAS 11 DIFFERENT SPECIES) like the softshell, water or box turtle I would have turned it upside down and removed the hook and then placed that turtle back into the Lake. So, what did I do with this snapping turtle? OH, I didn’t say how big this thing was, did I? I would guesstimate, 14 to 17 inches and like I said above, heavy enough that I thought it was a medium size Muskie or one of the biggest Pike I have caught.

After screaming about that big *#@#!@#*&%#@ in the net, I took out my long needle nose plyers and was going to attempt to remove the hook, but then came back to reality and pulled out my knife, put tension on the line and cut it as close to the hook as I could. I put the net over the side of the boat and with one big splash this prehistoric creature was gone. Maybe because my hands were wet, but reasons I can’t explain, I looked down to make sure I still had all my fingers and both thumbs. Do I think that turtle is a live today? Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t care if it is or not. I put SNAPPING TURTLES in the same category as I do with ANY SNAKE and lets just leave it at that.

While I’m writing, here are a few facts about SNAPPING TURTLES.
* Their bite is so powerful they can bite through a bone. Bite force up to 1000psi (see I told you)
* Can bold their breath under water over 40 minutes.
* Can extend its neck two thirds of the shell length.
* Can whistle, growl, chirp & bark. (It’s true, look it up lol)
* Can weigh up to 45 pounds.
* Shell can be 16 to 28 inches
* Can run over 2 mph and swim 10 to 12 mph.

Instead of trying to catch the big Northern Pike we saw the day before, I experienced enough in that location and moved across the lake to one of my other good perch spots and did pretty well. Oh, and Thursday, May 23^rd is NATIONAL TURTLE DAY if you care, LOL