Turtle Trapping

Does anyone have experience trapping turtles? I built a trap and I don't know if I have a location problem or a technique problem.

 

Mine is a hoop net with a bait sack inside.

 

My Dad used to keep the turtles out of the pond with a trotline across the pond, 2/0 hooks on snells and kitchen scraps.

 

too much work too expensive to built. 55 gallon metal drum with removable top (top not needed) cost $10-$20. wooden ramp board. couple small 90 degree brackets to sheet metal screw ramp board to outside of drum at top. 1/2" thick plywood tripping board. couple small hinges. small piece of hardware cloth to secure bait on topside over barrel end of tripping board. 1/3 of tripping board over barrel with hinge(s) secured to top inside of barrel. 2/3 of tipping board lays flat back down the ramp board. Holes punched around bottom of barrel so it can be sunk in water sitting on bottom with 18" above water.
.
turtles naturally will climb on ramp board to rest and bask in sun. turtle see or smells bait on end of tripping board and goes up ramp, onto tripping board, continues to climb towards bait. at certain point tripping board drops turtle into barrel waiting your collection.
.
this trap should be used in private ponds in shallow areas. i normally have concrete block with rope and float inside barrel to help hold it down and in place. often also with weighted 1/2" or 3/8" line back to shore and stake. waders, canoe, or johnboat to service/empty traps of your catch.

 

I have made turtle traps out of wash tubs and wire mesh and have had pretty good luck. The trick is to make sure the catch basin is stationary but the pivot plank is important too. Bait is actually a help because sometime turtles need a little encouragement but that seems to work best with a mesh basin.

 

We used to be able to catch up to 60 turtles a day buy diving them up but not no more it was one of my favorite meals then I would set jug lines to catch soft shells but not no more.

 

turtle trap pictures - Yahoo Search Results Yahoo Image Search Results

 

There are alot of options, I worked with what I had.

 

This is actually the first I've seen one.

 

I just wire together a box from woven wire field fence 2' wide 2' tall and 4' long with one end closed with flat wire and the other end < with top of the < wired loose so it raises when the turtle goes in and drops back down once it is in. Use wire to to hang some over ripe chicken guts from the top of the cage and drop it in shallow water leaving 6" of the top of the cage exposed. Snappers and softies love some good rotten chicken livers A friend uses a coffee can with a ring of spikes around the open end pointing inward, turtle sticks its head in and can't pull it back out. I prefer my cage since the little turtles can get out and only only bigger ones stay. And if I get a turtle I don't want I can release it (We do get the occasional alligator snapper in our stock ponds). Releasing and getting them out is easy as well. Just turn the cage upside down and the wire hinged top of the < lays down flat on the cage and they slide right out. I have never has much luck with the floating box models or pivoting drop in traps for turtles anyway....... A 55 gallon drum with some ledges bolted on and 18' wide strip cut on the up side though.......... works great for muskrats. Pulled 17 rats out of one drum one morning.

 

From what I have read and been told Turtle is really tasty. Not many in my neck of the woods.I wondered if a certain kind could be raised for eating in a man-made pool of sorts? i admit it would be easier where they are there naturally.

 

I would be killing those snappers. Dangerous and eat too many game fish