Don’t know you you guys hunt turtles with a hook (hand held) but around hear when I was a kid it was a big thang. My family on both sides hunted and I grew up fascinated with turtles and turtle hunting I thought everybody did it but as I got older I realized it was not as known I I grew up to believe.
The old hunters used a bed frame to get there main rod and they would braze a pitch fork tine one end to make there hook from.
I use a high carbon piece of steel and weld it in for a bit and draw it down in a forge I then harden and draw it back to make it tough my hooks will stand up to limestone and keep sharp enough to drag him out when you find him.
My hooks are modeled after the ones daddy made witch he built from memory of the old ones he saw growing up. And was. Common design from what I have seen small hook with an L handle indexed to the hook so you always know how it’s turned without thinking.
I call mine a Hickman’s Creek turtle briar!
If you look you can see colors were I drowned it back after harding. I draw them to a straw to blue jeen color thats around 400 to 550 degrees, that makes them tough like a spring and they hold the point in rocks.
Then you put um in the bank and drag him out! I built a new one this morning and took it to the creek with the family this evening and caught a big nice turtle.
But that picture won’t load form some reason the two I posted are a couple from last week.
Pretty neat! I had a good friend that died a couple of years back, and his Family was famous for noodling for turtles by hand. I never saw them use a hook the times I went with them; but they always came back with a few turtles every trip out!
I went catfish noodling with him a time or two, and I made a hook that was shaped like yours out of a paint roller frame. My thinking was to use it like a gaff if I got ahold of a big Flat head, but I never did get to use it on a catfish. I think I threw it out after my buddy passed away . Didn’t have any desire to fool with it after that.
I have hunted and caught turtles like that by hand before, when I was out and found a good bank without a hook. A few older guys around hear did that for fish and turtles in the Creeks but I never really knew of enybody in the river.
Colt
That’s a great tool! My papaw always hunted turtles with his hands only. Usually just creeks sometimes if the salt or Beechfork rivers were lower he’d go there too. I like the hook idea, well made.
So if I am understanding the process, it looks like you just walk along probing up in the bank of the river feeling for holes , or the turtle itself, and then just keep hooking and pulling on them until you get them out. Is this correct? I remember doing it by hand with my buddy, and seems like most times you really had to pull hard to get one out from under a bank! They would hook those claws into the roots and were usually determined not to be pulled out!
I can see how the hook would keep you up out of the water, and keep the leaches off you better!
And a guy wouldn’t think it , but even on a hot day, by the time you spend all day wallowing around in the water, you can get pretty cold, and worn out from reaching up under the bank feeling for turtles or fish! I can see how the hook would save you from a lot of that!
