January Pennsylvania Angler 1953

Si 3 ^ v . -J %• if\ JANUARY PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER 1953 SNAPPING TURTLE STREAMSIDE PLANTS OLD EEL WALLS LINES ABOUT LINES • FLY TYING - GAME COCK FEATHERS ^__ ————I——1—•II———IBM— JANUARY IS KING! ... the Big Wapwallopen struggles futilely against the power ful forces of winter, an icy grip that slows the roaring waterfall of the gorge. This scene may cause you to huddle up a bit closer to the fire but there is a certain beauty in winter's antics that defies all outdoors to do something about it. SPRING, to be sure, can release the stream from its tortured bondage but then Spring is far off, slumbering much like you and I dozing and dreaming in our big armchair . waiting . waiting . waiting! COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER PENNSYLVANIA HON. JOHN S. FINE GOVERNOR • Vol. 22, No. 1 JANUARY, 1953 PENNSYLVANIA FISH COMMISSION BERNARD S. HORNE, President PITTSBURGH PAUL F. BITTENBENDER, Vke-Pres. WILKES-BARRE IN THIS ISSUE MILTON L. PEEK RADNOR WILLIAM D. BURK MELROSE PARK THE SNAPPING TURTLE IN PENNSYLVANIA Keen Buss 2 GEN. A. H. STACKPOLE Fishery Biologist, Penna. Fish Commission DAUPHIN LOUIS S. WINNER LOCK HAVEN TERROR OF THE CORAL REEFS J°»" M. Davis 5 PHILIP E. ANGLE SHARON STREAMSIDE PLANTS CAN MAKE OR BREAK YOUR FISHING Stephen Collins 6 EXECUTIVE OFFICE C. A. FRENCH, Executive Director B s 9 ELLWOOD CITY FOR THEM WHAT LIKES FISH £"9™° "<" H. R. STACKHOUSE Administrative Secretary ._, .,,.,,(. Don Shiner 10 ROBERT P. DEITER OLD EEL WALLS Comptroller R. C. McCASSLIN Deputy Comptroller LINES ABOUT LINES Keith C. Schuyler 14 • PUBLIC RELATIONS J. ALLEN BARRETT FLY TYING VIA SIMPLIFIED METHODS George W. Harvey 16 Director * FISH CULTURE _„ _,,TLjr:DC Albert G. Shimmel 20 GAME COCK FEATHERS C. R. BULLER Chief Fish Culturist GORDON L. TREMBLEY . ..* TrûkiiAiic PAPT II Vincent Marinaro 22 Chief Aquatic Biologist ROD GLUEING TECHNIQUE, PARI n ARTHUR D. BRADFORD Pathologist CYRIL G. REGAN Chief Div. of Land and Water Acquisition THE COVER ... ICE FISHING is SEORGE H. GORDON Official Photographer rugged business but it often pays THOMAS F. O'HARA off with a mess of tasty perch, mighty Construction Engineer HATCHERY SUPERINTENDENTS satisfying to the hardy ice angler. Dewey Sorenson—Bellefonte Photo By Ewing Galloway, H. Y. Merrill Lillie—Corry & Union City Edwin H. Hahn—Erie T. J. Dingle—Huntsdale Howard Fox—Linesville * * * J. L. Zettle— Pleasant Mount George Magargel—Reynoldsdale Bernard Gill—Tionesta John J. Wopart—Torresdale BACK COVER- ENFORCEMENT NO "June in January" here but there's W. W. BRITTON beauty in this portrait of a trout stream Chief Enforcement Officer beauty ... .. painted by winters artists DISTRICT SUPERVISORS Photo by Don Shiner Northwest Division CARLYLE S. SHELDON Conneautville, Pa.; Phone 3033 Southwest Division MINTER C. JONES 1339 East Philadelphia Street, York, Pa. 361 W. Lincoln St., Somerset, Pa.; George W. Forrest, Editor Phone 5324 North Central Division C. A. BIDELSPACHER 76.7 W. 4th St., Williamsport, Pa.; Phone 24561 „„.„.. iiar^TTTO is nubli-shed monthly by the Pennsylvania Pish Commission. The PENNSYLVANIA^ ANGLER, . ^ ^ôscription: $1.00 per year, 10 cents per single copy. South Central Division South gffloe Bu^tag.Hairtob^Pa. wrgap ^ £ . SEND HAROLD CORBIN f Pennsylvanla DO NOT 521 13th St., Huntingdon, Pa.; Phone 1202 Send check or money 0^ payaue Change of address should reach Northeast Division SeC nd laSS maUer C. W. SHEARER PosSr^^^^W,t Office, Harrisburg, Pa., under Act of March 3, 1873^. " ° ° ^ Box 3, Sweet Valley, Pa.; „ v.« i™ „„,. wrtitnr will assume responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or Phone Dallas 48427 Neither Publisher ?°' E<Mor wiU a. of in transit. Permission to reprint will be given Southeast Division illustrations while in theii Passion or in material or illustrations. Only JOHN S. OGDEN 242 E. College Ave., York, Pa.; Phone 7434 ^îJ^&ÛÂ^™* °' illustrations should be addressed to the Editor at the above address. Figure VI. Portrait of a snapper. Don't let the tranquility fool you. That head is lightning fast. partially exposed. (Note this structure on the larger turtle in Figure I.) The tail has a very distinct median dorsal crest, as shown in Figure II. Perhaps another very conspicuous characteristic is its very vile temper while on land. It will continually snap at every object within reach until re placed in the confines of water. This trait is noticeable even in the newly hatched young. Size: The average adult snapping turtle in Pennsylvania averages be tween fifteen and thirty pounds. Turtles thirty to thirty-five pounds are uncom mon and over thirty-five pounds are very rare. This may shock many fisher men who swear that most of the spec imens they have seen are forty, fifty and even sixty pounds; but actual weights on hundreds of specimens in this state show that turtles above thirty-five pounds are rare. The oft- repeated story of how a man once grew a snapping turtle up to eighty-five âafrfeu 4€& pounds in a swill barrel is a rare ex ception indeed. It is doubtful that any turtle in the "wild" state would ever reach these proportions. Age: It is assumed by many people that this species of turtle when it be comes an adult and weighs about thirty (untie pounds must be fifty or one hundred years old. There are no accurate data on the age of "wild" turtles, but snap pers which have been kept in captivity Identification, Life History, and Status of the have reached the age of twenty years. Probably twenty-five years is a maxi "Snapper" in Pennsylvania mum age for these reptiles. Distribution: This most widely dis By Keen Buss tributed of all turtles is found from the east coast of the United States to Fishery Biologist, Pennsylvania Fish Commission the Rockies, and from southern Canada into southeastern Mexico. It is found all over Pennsylvania where the water HE snapping turtle (Chelydra ser Identification: To many people the is suitable enough to support aquatic T pentina serpentina) is a subject for snapping turtle is a common sight and life. Fossil remains found in Maryland much debate. There are some people easily distinguishable; to others, it may show that this creature has been an who wish it would become extinct; become confused with the many species inhabitant of eastern United States for others wish that its numbers would be of the common harmless pond turtles. at least 10,000 years. conserved. Why are there these differ Therefore, it is necessary to identify Mating: Mating may occur from April ences of opinion? What do we know this creature for all. until November. In the mating act the about the beneficial or detrimental Like all other turtles it has both an male mounts on top of the female and qualities of this reptile which may help upper and lower shell. The upper or grasps the edge of her carapace with us form sound conclusions regarding dorsal shell on the snapping turtle is the claws of all four feet. The tails are the status of this animal in our state? called the carapace; the lower or ven twisted so that the vents of both sexes First, let us study the facts that have tral shell is called the plastron. It is come in contact. The writer witnessed been ascertained by biologists and then this plastron which is distinct in the this act, which he assumed to be the —only then—base our viewpoint upon snapper. This lower shell is narrow and mating act, in a turtle trap in north these facts. cross-shaped, leaving the under parts western Pennsylvania during the past ? PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER Figure I. Forced into this most hated of positions, the turtle exposes the characteristic cross-shaped shell. Figure II. This turtle is held at the right end both to expose thi median dorsal crest of plates on the tail (arrow) and to protect the handler. summer. Fred Ralph, dean of turtle trappers in this section, claims that this occurs often in a trap in which there are two or more turtles. He, too, as sumed this to be a mating procedure. Turtles have been seen in the most ferocious kind of combat. Whether this is battle for the graces of a female, or a battle for their own particular range, can only be left to conjecture. Westing: Information on the nesting habits of the snapping turtles seems to be vague and confusing. Mr. J. L. Zettle, superintendent of the Pleasant Mount State Fish Hatchery, who is a keen student of biology, reported the following information. "I have watched the turtles making The female snapper didn't intend it this way, but here are her Figure their nests and laying their eggs over eggs recently removed from the nest. a number of years and here are my observations on them. "The female turtle selects a sunny place that is sandy or where the soil is loose and she then burrows out a hole that will be large enough to hold the eggs. While she is depositing her eggs in the nest she has her tail in the hole and keeps working it around with a fan-like motion. This packs the eggs and also covers a small amount of earth over each one. After all the eggs are laid, she sprays water which she has retained in her body over the mound of earth removed when making the nest. She mixes the water and earth with her tail and then, again using her tail, covers the hole with the mix ture and tamps it down. I know that under favorable conditions it takes turtle eggs about three months to hatch." Other workers in this field have re ported that when the female withdraws from the nest the soil which has col lected on her shell falls in and covers the eggs and she departs without a further effort toward covering her eggs.

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