Posted on 05/13/2024 8:20:24 AM PDT by Red Badger
Art Weston reeled in a fearsome, 200lbs. prehistoric alligator snapping turtle
Weston was trying to catch a record-breaking alligator gar when it happened
The prehistoric beast had its mouth open and was ready to bite and claw them
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Plus they can live to be over a hundred years old.
Thats why I said that. He had to have chosen a side.
He could have been neutral...............
Then one day we saw a good size - maybe 30 lb. snapper on a local road. My wife wanted me to get it off the road so it would not be hit. "Naturally" it did it's typical hissing, lunging / snapping at me... I decided the best bet was to grab a stick and let the thing chomp down on that: I did, the snapper obliged and held on, and I safely dragged the beastie well off the road.
My wife was freaked out, helped by the turtle biting off the end of the 1st stick I tried. (Well, it was a bit rotted.) So much for her love of turtles, although this thing being so ugly, she still doesn't want to try eating one.
Too bad: In my teens, my Dad and I cleaned one to eat. We had it down to the shell and one leg still attached, and the leg was still moving a bit. I can imagine Wifey's reaction to that...
Prolly good fresh food for a Klingon, though!
Your account confirms my view that, like the citizens of the USA, our wildlife is superior in fighting qualities and tenacity to the effete and timorous wildlife of the rest of the world.
The only reason you said this isn’t because you are curious about my point. It is because you do not like my direction of thought. You think I should have this same admiration for the guy catching a big fish.
He caught a big fish. Well, that just doesn’t matter to me. That won’t change. I’ve never been impressed by these records of men catching a big fish. I know it happens, people are impressed and I know, it takes strength, cunning and skill and a bit of luck but I don’t care about it.
We had a woods where I grew up. In it I would occasionally find a turtle, pretty big for just a regular ole turtle but I found it amazing that these animals were out there, wild and meandering through nature as they have done for so long. There were snapping turtles as well. I was afraid of them but I knew these guys descended from ages ago and here they were too, swimming in our creek.
There were no ‘gars’ where I lived and I just have no interest in them. It’s not about prehistoric fish for me, either. It’s not about fish, it’s about turtles for me. I relate to them. I looked in their little eyes, they looked at me, I made pets of them then let them go back to the woods. I like turtles.
Years ago we had a neighbor doing some dirt work in a marshy area of our area of small acreages. One day the neighbors dog was barking & I walked out & she was barking a large snapping turtle. Probably 50 lbs and about 36” nose to end of tail. Talked to someone associated with the Iowa extension office & they guessed a 40 year old turtle. Can’t imagine how old that one would be.
I've seen one really large old snapping turtle -- nearly 3 feet broad -- in one of the inland lakes, years ago. All the snappers round here are ill tempered and quick to let you know it. Four or five years ago I was walking down to get the mail, and kept detecting motion in the corner of my eye. When I'd turn, I saw nothing.
As I returned from the mailbox, I kept watching, and spotted an ordinary adult snapper (typically 14-15 inches broad) crossing the grass, and apparently making a beeline for a nearby pond. Not sure what the point of origin was, probably the creek south of here, but the land to be crossed was roughly a quarter mile.
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣................................
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