It took two months, but David Nero finally landed a monster of an alligator snapping turtle.
“He gave a good fight, I can guarantee you,” said David Nero of Grand Coteau, who was fishing Wednesday along Bayou Teche.
“He weighs 120 pounds. I had to use a corn scale to weigh him,” Nero said.
Nero has lived along the bayou his entire life and has caught turtles in the past, even a seven-foot gar, but nothing as big as this.
He said he first encountered this turtle about two months ago, but because he was only using 60-pound test line, couldn’t land him.
This week he happened to have a length of rope with him in his pickup. Once he brought the turtle close to shore using his rod and reel, he roped the beast and was finally able to drag him in.
Nero said he’s not sure what he will do with the turtle, but he’s considering keeping him.
“I’ve got a pond on my property. It has some fish in it so he’ll have plenty to eat,” said Nero, whose 10-year-old son Desmond has named the sturdy-shelled giant Big Daddy.
“I’d love to know his age,” Nero said. “He looks prehistoric.”
Jody David, a biologist with the Opelousas Wildlife and Fisheries office, said people have reported such large turtles in the area before, although this one is bigger than most.
“It is probably an old turtle. They live a long time. They can get to that size or bigger,” David said.
The alligator snapping turtle, which has been reported to live as long as 200 years, is the heaviest freshwater turtle in the world. The largest on record was 249 pounds.
David said humans should handle these turtles with extreme care because they’re potentially dangerous. A large turtle like this one can easily bite through a broom handle.
“Don’t put you hand near them,” David warned. “They will snap your fingers off.”
The alligator snapping turtle lives primarily in the southeastern United States from East Texas east to the Florida panhandle and up the Missouri River as far north as South Dakota.
It will eat almost anything it can catch, from fish to nutria. These turtles have even been known to snatch small to mid-sized animals such as squirrels, opossums, raccoons and armadillos when they attempt to swim or venture near the water’s edge.
But apparently their favorite food is other turtles. A 2006 study of adult alligator snapping turtles in Louisiana found that 80 percent of their stomach contents were their own relatives.