Heres a couple stories on snappers. My friends dad when he was around my age (18) used to catch them locally (portage county) and actually sold them to the local country kitchen. They made them into soup that does taste good, and I have heard the flavor of the meat be compared to chicken. Heres the story on the biggest snapper Ive ever seen:
I was spearing with a buddy in Bear lake in mid-september, after a rain. This doesnt sound like ideal timming for a dive because it wasnt, kyle had never been spearfishing and had been begging all summer long. Figuring with the weather declining every day, I should get him out as soon as possible we went. Visibility turned out to be around 4-5ft, so we "ran" off the lilly pads at about that range so we could barely see him. (Ideal crappie territory in this lake) Shot one fish, and put him on the stringer, but strangely saw very few fish in a lake that had never not produced a full stringer. We continued on, when suddenly out of the corner of my SCUBAPRO "ventana" mask I saw an object rushing towards me. I turned my body to it and saw that it was a large snapping turtle, mouth agape, charging me. In the same instant I put my spear tip in what I would call its shoulder, and pushed it down in front of me. (Because of vis this all happened in half a second) I had been amazed by the size, speed, and strength of the animal. My friend kyle who was with me said that when I pushed it down in front of me the tip of its tail was aligned with my shoulder and that its snout was down my fins. Making this animal around 4 1/2 feet long. We decided to leave. Once on shore an old man asked us "Seen any snapping turtles?" and I replied with the sublime "Oh... there in there!" Scary to think that that thing would have clamped onto my head and *POP* that would have been the end of me. Immensly powerful jaws that, as whopperhead said, do not let go. Be careful, they are probably the most dangerous animal in wisconsin to a diver.
