How To Catch A Soft
There are two turtles you can find swimming through the rivers of your island in New Horizons – the Soft-shelled Turtle and the Snapping Turtle.
Despite only being available in to , the Soft-shelled Turtle is typically easier to catch as it appears from 4pm to 9am, while the Snapping Turtle can only be found at night, starting at 9pm till 4am.
Since these times overlap, you can easily search any river for both turtles at the same time in either August or September.
Both turtles appear as a medium sized shadow when in the water, so it’s a good idea to ignore or scare away the smaller fish that you come across. River fish are typically easier to scare away than sea fish, so you can quite easily patrol any river that you might have on your island.
If, however, you have a preferred river fishing spot, then you can make a batch of fish bait and attempt to bring the turtle to you. Though, if you don’t have a good river fishing spot, but prefer using bait, you can always terraform the island using the Island Designer app.
We suggest creating a curved section of river, which will allow you to access at least two different angles. This will allow you to easily toss bait into the waters, while also keeping an eye out for any fish that naturally appear.
Just remember to connect your new section of river to the river mouth or else you risk it becoming a pond, which will change the fish available to you, removing both turtles.
Animal Crossing New Horizons Soft
Everyone loves Animal Crossing New Horizons, and everyone especially loves the games turtles. Theyre adorable and make a great addition to your islands museum. In this guide were going to go over how to catch the Soft-shelled turtle, its location, sell price and more in Animal Crossing New Horizons. Lets dive right into the guide.
How To Catch A Snapping Turtle In Animal Crossing New Horizons
Snapping turtles are present for a large part of the year, but they’re still fairly rare and need to be hunted for at a certain time of day. If you want to go snapper-snatching, remember the following:
Joel Franey/USgamer, Nintendo
- Snapping turtles can be found only in rivers, never ponds or the ocean.
- They are present in April through October in the Northern Hemisphere, and October to April in the Southern Hemisphere.
- They only come out at night. To find one, it’ll have to between 9:00 PM and 4:00 AM.
- Their shadows are fairly large, though not the biggest in the game. To be safe, throw your rod at anything average or bigger.
- Even with all this, snapping turtles aren’t that common, so you might have to fish for a little while before finding one.
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Snapping Turtle Price In Animal Crossing New Horizons
The selling price for a snapping turtle in Animal Crossing New Horizons is 5,000 bells.
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Donating it to the museum on your first capture is the obvious thing to do, but when you catch more youll want to sell them all to the Nooks for the aforementioned price.
How Do You Catch A Snapping Turtle In Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Snapping Turtles can be caught in the rivers of your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island. In the Nothern Hemisphere, they can be caught between the months of April and October late at night. In the Southern Hemisphere, theyll still spawn late at night, but from October to April.
Youll have caught an aquatic creature or possibly some junk if youre unlucky though theres no guarantee that itll be a Snapping Turtle. Fortunately, they arent all that rare so get some more Fishing Bait and keep trying until you eventually find success.
If somehow you manage to catch multiple, Snapping Turtles can be sold for 5,000 Bells in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
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Snapping Turtle Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Players will find that a river is where this creature will spend its time when it spawns in the world of the latest entry in the fan-favorite Nintendo franchise. This particular creature spawns in the Northern Hemisphere between April and October and between October and April in the Southern Hemisphere. Players will have to wait until these specific months in their hemispheres to have a chance of encountering and catching the snapping turtle.
This aquatic creature spawns between the hours of 9 PM and 4 AM, which means players will have to wait for this specific period to be able to catch the snapping turtle.
Individuals who can catch this creature will be able to sell the fish for a total of 5,000 Bells, making it one of the most lucrative animals that players can sell in the title.
Do you want to learn more about Animal Crossing: New Horizons besides how to get a snapping turtle? If so, be sure to check out our dedicated hub for the popular game or three of our most recent pieces of coverage below:
Adopt A Snapping Turtle In Animal Crossing New Horizons
April. May and has introduced a variety of new critters for players to catch. One of these, is the popular snapping turtle. One reason for the creatures popularity, is that unlike other critters, they bizzarely dont have tanks. This gives the illusion that they are free-roaming. Therefore, people are creating habitats for them and keeping them as pets.
Some people have even taken things to the next level and filled entire rooms in their houses with them. .
Another reason, is that the reptiles fetch a pretty penny, especially when sold to C.J. during his visits. However, you may be wondering, how do I catch one? I had no clue either, but after some extensive research, here are some tips on how to catch a snapping turtle in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
My house is full of snapping turtles, and if that ends up meaning something in this game, Id say Im doing preeeeetty good. from AnimalCrossing
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How To Catch A Snapping Turtle
Learn how to catch a Snapping Turtle in Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch.
Snapping Turtles are one of the few reptiles available to catch in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and getting your hands on this fantastic little companion wont be that difficult. If you are having issues, though, we can help. Below youll find in-depth information on how to catch a Snapping Turtle in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
If I Catch One What Should I Do With It
You should probably donate your first one to the museum. When donating the snapping turtle, or asking Blathers for more information about it, he will initially remain professional. This doesnt last for very long though, and hell soon go on to tell you an amusing anecdote:
The snapping turtle is a large turtle known for its crocodile-like body and long claws. No, waitit is better known for its ferocious bite, which it can deliver with shocking speed for a turtle. NO, WAITit is BEST known for that time one chased me across a parking lot and I had to climb on top of a car.
After making the wise decision to donate your first specimin, you can then choose to either keep following catches as pets, or whether to sell them.
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How To Find Snapping Turtles
Like other bugs or fishes in this game, turtles have their own time as well.
For the Northern Hemisphere, they appear from April to October every year. They appear at night to early morning. The price tag is 5,000 Bells.
To catch them, head towards the rivers. It can be on your own island or on mystery islands.
Animal Crossing New Horizons: How To Catch A Soft Shelled Turtle
This critter will only appear in the river.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons has two different turtles to catch and donate to the museum. While turtles are technically reptiles, theyre part of the fish collection in New Horizons.
Heres everything you need to know about finding and catching a soft-shelled turtle!
The soft-shelled turtle will appear on islands in the Northern Hemisphere from August to September. According to AllGamers, it can be found in the Southern Hemisphere from February to March. Soft-shelled turtles can appear in the river from 4 p.m. to 9 a.m.
The soft-shelled turtle has a large shadow size. Check out our gameplay clip below to see the exact shadow size youre looking for.
Soft-shelled turtles can be sold for 3,750 Bells each at Nooks Cranny, or for even more if you sell them to C.J. when he visits your island.
Since multiple fish share the same shadow size, it can sometimes take a while to track down a specific creature. That being the case, check out the ChargePlay Clutch from HyperX. It can extend your devices battery life so you can play New Horizons for a longer period of time before having to charge your Switch. Head over to HyperXs website to learn more about the ChargePlay Clutch and the companys other Switch accessories.
To learn more about Animal Crossing: New Horizons, or to view the rest of our guides for the game, check out our previous coverage.
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How To Have A Pet Snapping Turtle
While it doesnt actually count as a pet any more than tossing down another fish or bug might, the Snapping Turtle is the only creature that doesnt get put into a bowl or cage when you place it down on your island. As such, many users have used this to their advantage to put down a pet Snapping Turtle somewhere in their house or on their island.
Of course, it isnt the typical type of pet you might expect from a video game, but it is cool to be able to toss these lovely creatures down somewhere on your island for a bit more wildlife variation. To have a pet Snapping Turtle all you need to do is catch one of these creatures and then find a nice spot on your island and choose Place Item when interacting with it in your inventory. This will place it on the ground, allowing you to walk up and interact with it by pressing A. This will cause it to snap with its mouth, so watch your fingers!
Now that you know how to catch a Snapping Turtle, be sure to head back over to our Animal Crossing: New Horizons guide for more helpful information and content.
Snapping Turtle Active Time

For players in the northern hemisphere, the snapping turtle can be caught from the beginning of April to the end of October. Players in the southern hemisphere, though, will need to wait until the beginning of October for this reptile to appear on their island, and have until the end of April the following year to catch it.
Like its real-world counterpart, the snapping turtle is nocturnal. Its active hours are between 9 pm and 4 am.
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What Do Their Shadows Look Like In Rivers
The fish shadow of a snapping turtle is pretty large. It has a shadow size of 5, making it one of the larger fish in the game. Unfortunately, its shadow is also the same size as a sea bass. Therefore you may have to endure a few of the sea basss terrible pun before you nab yourself your turtle.
I caught a sea bass! No, wait- its at least a C+! Sea bass pun
How To Catch A Turtle In Animal Crossing New Horizons
Before we get into specific, heres a pro tip: to scare away smaller fish shadows, you can pole vault from one side of the river to the other. This is effective for clearing out the area in preparation for your turtle catch.
Further, always remember that islands visited using a Nook Miles ticket tend to have a better chance for spawning turtles. That isnt to say you wont find one on your island, but its just less likely.
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Animal Crossing: New Horizons How To Catch Snapping Turtle
One of the cool things about Animal Crossing: New Horizons is its use of a real time calendar and seasonal variety of available fish and bugs. As it just became April, there are a bunch of new creatures to catch on your island. And if youre in the northern hemisphere theres a really cool one youll definitely want to grab. But youll need to know where and when if you want this monstrous beast for yourself, or to donate to Blathers museum . Heres how to catch snapping turtle in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
When And Where Does The Snapping Turtle Spawn
In the Northern Hemisphere, snapping turtles show up in the river after 9pm and before 4am, between April and October.
In the Southern Hemisphere, snapping turtles show up in the river after 9pm and before 4am, between October and April.
It’s a late-night fish then – don’t bother if you’re playing during the daytime. If the snapping turtle doesn’t spawn at this time of year for you, you might want to head to a foreign player’s island. Remember though, it’s calculated by local time, so post-9pm for you might not be the case on the opposite side of the world.
Of course, this fish isn’t common so you might end up taking a while – read on for advice on making them appear more often.
The shadow youre looking for is a reasonably large one – if youve caught a sea bass before , its that size. Unfortunately, this makes it pretty indistinguishable from a black bass, but keep casting your rod regardless.
We’ve got more fish catching guides for you if you’re looking to fill out your Critterpedia:
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Whats The Best Way To Catch Them
Thanks for reading How To Catch A Soft-Shelled Turtle In Animal Crossings: New Horizons! Be sure to check out all our Game Guides and more!
What Time Can You Catch Snapping Turtle In Animal Crossing New Horizons
The time you can catch snapping turtle in Animal Crossing New Horizons is between 21:00 and 04:00.
This means that you have to fish underneath the thick blanket of darkness despite the dangers that come with night-time skinny dipping ala Jaws.
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In addition to only being able to catch the snapping turtle at night, you can also only catch it during the following months for the Northern Hemisphere:
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Where Can I Find Soft
Soft-Shelled Turtles are always going to be found in rivers. Theres 1 main place to search for in Rivers:
- Rivers Above Cliffs: Certain fish only spawn in rivers that are on top of a cliff. Check your higher elevated rivers for Soft-Shelled Turtles before searching in the lower elevated ones. Bring your Fishing bait!
Finding Soft-Shelled Turtles also depends on your Hemisphere location.
If you are in the Northern Hemisphere, you can catch them in August and September.
If you are in the Southern Hemisphere, you can catch them in February and March.
For either Hemisphere, Soft-Shelled Turtles can be caught between 9 AM and 4 PM.
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Animal Crossing New Horizons: How To Catch A Snapping Turtle
We show you how to catch one of the game’s few reptiles, the snapping turtle.
Guideby Joel Franey, Guides Writer
Though it’s not exactly a fish, one of the rarer creatures you can fish for in Animal Crossing New Horizons is the snapping turtle, a short, squat reptile with a nasty bite. Below we’ll show you how to catch a snapping turtle of your very own.
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