Turtle season july 15

Does anyone do any turtle catching? I'm looking to start in central Wisconsin and I'm wondering how to catch them.

I use bank poles along with rod and reel while I'm catfishing.

One bait I know for sure works great for turtles is frozen smelt. I learned this the hard way using frozen smelt for catfish bait. I caught a ton of large catfish on the smelt but I also caught a large number of snapping turtles and soft-shelled turtles. Since I personally have no interest in catching turtles (I rather LIKE turtles) I stopped using smelt for bait and went back to chicken liver. I caught very, very few turtles on chicken liver. Buddy of mine lost two rods in one night using smelt for bait on the Lower Wisconsin River. A turtle can push off on the bottom and just YANK your rod right out of the rod holder and into the river. I went over to visit with my buddy that night (he was fishing about 100 yards downstream from me and while we were talking his rod just FLEW out of the rod holder and into the river. Smelt. Smelt works great for turtles.

Wisconsin’s Amphibian and Reptile Regulations TURTLES: may be taken by hand, dip net, hook and line, set line, set or bank poles, hooking, or hoop net trap. No other trap types are allowed.

In the state of Wi. you must trap them to do it legally. there are a lot of ways of catching them if you go around the law. Just remember it is also illegal to pick them up along side the road.

Cut bait was what i was mainly planning on using. But another question is do you put it on? Poles like they do on the show swamp people except with bait in the water?

Fresh cut bait in the shallows!

jannsnetcraft.com sells books that will get you started. I just checked their web page and turtle traps are on sale now.