Ok, to you saltwater dogs this may seem trivial to you...but as a midwestern inland lake swimmer...the thought of running into a big snapping turtle has always haunted me. As a kid I used to catch them . I grew up a block from the Rouge River...you learned respect quickly. They were awsome, snap a broom stick cool.
So tonight I go to my favorite inland, boatless, middle of the woods lake. Pickeral lake.
The beach there is about twenty feet across,nice and sandy, flanked by lilly pads on each side. A teenage gal with short cropped blonde hair is standing there in a red bikini about waist deep looking out over the lake..her boy friend has just bolted up the trail for what ever reason. I stroll into the water up to my waist, lower goggles , and dive.
It was like 8:30 pm and some big cloud bank was moving in...I thought"feeding time" for the big fish, maybe I'll see a big gar pike or something.
I swoop into the water and feel this slight glancing whisp to my chest. My hands are directly out in front of me and I am looking straight down at this snapping turtle the size a a couple footballs diving along with me down into the weeds two feet directly below.
It had what appeared to be white tips on its shell points giving it a very surreal look.
I had dived right on top of it and it was scrabling to get away...soo cool.
I was Alexander Popov, cruising across the glass surface. I only swam about about 1000 yards, but it was powerful and felt great. A quick out and back to change the end of a long day. Swimming back into the weed funneled shore, I had hoped to see the turtle again..but was not so lucky. I had lost my fear. The kid that had ran up the trail was now standing in the water where i had spotted the turtle. He had a fishing rod that was nearly bent in half...snagged on a weed , or was it the Snapper. As I waded out of the water I mentioned of my diving over the monsterturtle to his girlfriend."ya right where he is standing"I said....in a German accent she said ,"really"... her blue eyes wide open with imagination. :chug:
