Mahoney had sent me an email due to a different post of mine discussing turtle traps. I replied with this email, so I thought I'd post it here in case others might be interested.
Pretty simple really, just take a 30 gallon galvanized trash can, drill a hole in the bottom, put a 1/4, 3/8 or 1/2 inch diameter hook eye through the hole with the nuts on the outside. Using a hole saw also add about 10 1" holes to the bottom to make it easier to pull up. Then you can take a foot long piece of chain like dog chain or bigger and put a snap clip on one end and a big hook, like ones used in saltwater or catfish fishing. Finally on one handle tie on a short piece of rope, and add some weight to the type like a 15 # boat anchor see least. Then tie a long piece of rope to the other handle, usually a 100 foot piece, smaller if you know you're lakes depth. To use it, you just attach a few fish heads or meat to the hook and take it by boat out into the lake. It must at least be submerged, but bigger ones tend to come from deeper, so drop it down to the bottom and leaving some slack, tie off a milk jug or bleach bottle to be buoy.
The idea is that the turtle smells the food and pushes in to get it and gets wedged into the can. They can only hold their breath for like 20 min, so they drown. You can use other size cans if the prey it's smaller or larger.
Hope this helps.
