Now, this IS bp.net, so I'd better get some reptile pics in here, huh? Don't worry, I saved the best for last!

The last day of fishing, I was out with my brother. Fishing was rather slow, and we figured we'd have some fun trying to chase turtles around. Another family tradition of ours is turtle-catching at my grandparents' lakehouse in michigan, so it's something we've been doing a long time and are very good at. Typically this involves spotting turtle heads when they come up to breathe, and chasing them down before they get too far away. I prefer to swim after them(way more fun and challenging than netting! Plus you can get them when they dive deep), but the water was a chilly 57 degrees so we stuck with netting from our boat.

Here's my brother with two of the half dozen or so we caught after lunch.


About an hour or so later while we're back to fishing, my brother spots another turtle sunning on the shore a couple hundred yards away. It's a tad bigger, but I convinced Steve that it wouldn't be a problem...

Except that it didn't fit in our net.


But luckily I was able to wrestle it in without getting bit.. Important, considering this is a very large snapping turtle. They tend to do that.


I pose for a pic, but now we have this giant snapping turtle in our boat. What in the world do we do NOW??

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Pick it up for a better picture, obviously.


We had a 40 lb battery to run our trolling motor in the boat. We figured, comparing the turtle's weight to the battery that the turtle was likely anywhere from 50-55 lbs.

Best release pic ever. Superman snapping turtle!




Hope you guys enjoyed the critters