I got a turtle right here and its buried in these sticks

but I definitely have the back of its tail

he's deep though, I don't know it I'm gonna get him

ah!

he's up underneath this log

Are you messing with me? NOPE! I definitely have a turtle this would be a terrible prank.

ah I'm losing him...wait here he comes here he comes!

look at that there he is

AH!

I'm in a beaver dam trying to get this turtle out of here

watch your camera here he comes

alright got him out got him out come on! He keeps pulling me down...

there he is there he is

NO way! hahahaha

thats what you call digging a dragon

out of a beaver dam! I'm Coyote Peterson

welcome to Dragon Tails!

Roann, Indiana...

is just as one might picture a small peaceful town

set in the heart of rural America

as you enter through the mouth of

an old covered bridge

it feels as if you're traveling back to a time

when life was much more simplistic

a peaceful place where one can stop and escape the fast pace of today

and transcend into the days of old. A time when stories captured our imaginations

grand tales of giant turtles that lurked in the lakes around town

I firmly believe that there is a world record turtle in Roann

Indiana area no one fishes for them to speak of

and they can be there for years and years so its a real good chance

and those who listen believed every last word

we captured cornelius and the giant known as stump beak

these are massive turtles living dinosaurs

modern-day dragons

everyone has a dragon tale but not many people

have the photographs to prove what their eyes have seen

Bill Haywood this one of the rare exceptions

a man who lives for adventure in the outdoors he's been capturing

and releasing snapping turtles for over 40 years

using safe traps bill has encountered hundreds of these prehistoric looking reptiles

but it wasn't until a year ago when a massive dragon destroyed one his traps

bringing him to the realization that he needed to build something

that could capture a legend. yeah if you wanna catch

a big turtle, you gotta bring a big trap

so that's what we did we built a big trap. Bill dreams of landing a world record size turtle

and the good news is that he knows exactly

where one might live. oh yeah he's here I don't think

left he's lived he all his life I'm sure hidden deep in the wilds of Roann

is a forest encompassed lake that has gone untouched by humans

for over 70 years

they never let anybody in here to turtle hunt before

if they live to be seventy/eighty years old there's a turtle here seventy to eighty years old

Bill has gotten permission to explore

and safe this ancient body of water a place where he believes

that a 100-pound dragon is lurking beneath the surface

a place that is known as Lost Lake

you feel like you're going to catch a dinosaur right now?

yes I do I feel like

this that moment jurassic park when they say

loading team step away gatekeeper

move in and so how does this work how are we going to catch world record turtle in this?

the turtles they'll zero in on that bait bucket

so as they try to get in they come to this opening

and theres what theyre zeroed in on...the bait bucket

they'll tear it up getting the fish out of it

then turns around to leave and can't find his way out

and that's the idea the safetrap is that the turtles don't get injured they don't

drown

there's plenty room for them to come up and breath and then you've got a door in

the top

which when we get turtle you open that up and take it out now this is

enormous you could fit a 300-pound turtle inside of this trap

we know the common snapping turtles largest on record United States was 88

pounds

you're thinking there's a hundred-pound turtle living in lost lake, if we can catch

that turtle

we're gonna catch a world record. Alright well lets get this loaded up on the boat

and

head out into the wilds of Lost Lake its the lost world out here

to enter the realm of Lost Lake

we first had to travel nearly half a mile down a narrow feeder channel

kayaking through the duckweed I pictured myself as a character

in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's lost world my mind traveling back 65 million years

to a place in time were giants once ruled the earth

I'm already lookin I mean this turtle could be anywhere out here

be on your guard at any moment you might just see me spring off this kayak

to catch a turtle. We forged over beaver dams

bye guys

thanks man! we encountered snakes

woah it gets deep in a hurry

we even caught our first turtle

as we lived what most would consider a nightmare

you always say we wish we had your job look at me now

with the goal of making it to a prehistoric looking paradise

that could potentially be hiding

within its murky waters an ancient world record sized turtle

its tough to not

jump out of the boat to start...

ah its a log!

I hit that, I thought it was a huge turtle

after two hours of mud

and four beaver dams later we had finally arrived

I can see just through the trees there its Lost Lake

this is we're gonna catch an enormous snapping turtle lets get into it

we made it!

nice work Bill

this is crazy... wow bill you weren't kidding

I feel like we've traveled back in time this is

unreal...huge lily pads

there's a great blue heron flying on the far side there ancient looking trees

and a GIANT dragon

out there in those waters. The folklore is the Indians

up on this ridge right here...they lived there

and they would send hunters down

and they wouldn't come back

that was 100s years ago. So they named it

lost lake that's how it got its name

it is impossible to describe in words what I felt as my kayak

cut across the waters of Lost Lake

knowing that I was the first human other than Bill

to explore these waters in nearly 100 years

we're all anxious to get after this giant turtle and as we search for a place to

set the trap

bill told us about the day that he had his epic encounter

one of the traps when we came back had two nice snappers in it

the other trap had a hole towards the back of it

he almost left an imprint of the shell as he passed through the wire

how big would you say a turtle would have to be to do that?

big as wide as that hole was...you could see that his shell rubbed the sides

I' guessing that hes 100 lbs

you think theres a 100 turtle in here? I really do, yeah...

Bill prepped his secret bait recipe, however the carp is the only part we can show you

as we released the dragon trap into the water my mind raced with visions

of what it would be like if we actually caught a 100-pound turtle

a good set right there. thats perfect

just enough space for the turtles to come up and breath

right up against the weed bed

now the waiting game begins

two and a half hours from now there might be a world record turtle in there

mmm right now

Bill and Mark are taking a break in shade

I just refuse to go in and wait

we've got to trap set I just keep envisioning this moment when

I'm moving in the kayak in all of sudden I see that shadow underwater

just like in Jaws see it going under the boat

jumping in and grabbing hold of that turtle even without the other cameras here

it would still be crazy

I'm gonna keep lookin we're gonna get him

Encountering a snapping turtle

is far easier said done and I'm used to the constant search

cruising the waters on my kayak staking out the lily pads

searching with binoculars for dragons

the waiting game can sometimes feel

like forever

Bills method of encountering dragons is quite a bit different

his strategy is to wait and let the trap

do all of the work

after a few hours had passed we headed back out onto the water

to see if the trial run was a success

could we have captured the legend Lost Lake on our first attempt?

the trap was about to tell us. Could be a world record sitting right down there

could be an enormous turtle in there right now

feel heavy? yeah it does

got one

holy cow look at that!

wow thats a pretty big turtle

holy cow he was no world record but our first catch

was a very healthy turtle

proof positive

that the dragons were lurking in Lost Lake

ah hes slicing me up...razor sharp claws. there you go that is the first

first official dragan

right out of Lost Lake we caught one

earlier in the channel but boy that is a

good-lookin' turtle right there

I can only imagine how big they're growing in here. covered in algae

just like the other one these turtles are ancient

man a sharp beak...beautiful reptile

if this is any indication

as to whats ahead of us I feel really good

about our chances of landing an enormous snapping turtle

now do you consider this a big turtle? no

no not for this lake he's a he seems healthy and fat

he just a really nice looking turtle but um

compared to some of the others I've caught here no he's no comparison

so the monster's still out there that

all right we gotta get the giant trap back into the water

so we can catch the giant dragon I named this guy Randy

cuz you guys know I name them all lets put him back in the wild

and hopefully overnight we get the big boy

here he goes ready? I'm gonna let him just plop off the side

see you later buddy

now the real test could the trap draw in

capture and hold a world record turtle?

12 hours from now we would find out all these years of anticipation this might be

it

oh yeah there's something in there...there's definitely something in there

its huge somethings in the bottom of this thing

geez I've never had this problem before

THATS A HUGE TURTLE!

that could be the 100lb turtle! next time

on Dragon Tails