snapping turtles

[Briana03]

Welcome to TBN

I moved your thread to the Rural Living Forum.

 

[chasemech]

Here is a little one for ya. Get them in my pool all the time

 

[idaho2]

And they taste better than chicken:thumbsup:

idaho2

 

[Bird]

When I was just a kid, I heard about turtle soup. I can't remember who told me you used soft shelled turtles for soup, but Dad & I occasionally caught both soft shelled and snapping turtles on our trotlines. So one day when I had caught a couple of soft shelled turtles, not much bigger than saucers. I dressed them out and took the meat home. Mother refused to have anything do with it, but allowed me to make turtle soup and it was quite good. So later I caught a much bigger soft shelled turtle. I still remember weighing it and think it was 8 pounds, so I dressed it out and made soup with it. The soup was good, but the meat was so tough the dog was the only one in the family that could eat it.:laughing: So I never made turtle soup again.

And I was in my mid-20s when I learned that people also eat the snapping turtles.

 

[Depmandog]

When I was 18, times were tough and I would often eat what I caught or shot as food, and was really glad to have it.

I was fishing in a 3 acre pond, had three bass on a stringer. The large bass was close to five pounds and I had the stringer in the water over by the spillway. I was on the other side of the pond, and every few minutes my fish would splash. Not thinking too much about it, since the water was pretty shallow where the stringer was I took my time fishing and then meandered over to collect my fish.

I reached down and pulled my stringer up, and half of the large bass was gone! The stringer hadn't been out of the water for ten seconds when the biggest snapper I ever seen came up our of the water with a real throaty hiss..like he was saying "give me back my dinner". I had no desire to dine after him, so I granted his request and tossed the fish back to him.

 

[tpulley]

I think I have created a new sport. I call it "Cappn". Its fairly easy to shoot a turtle in the shell. So to make it more challenging I started shooting them in the head. You can tell when you do it right. The body will slide under the water "head"/headless down then the legs will be wiggling as the muscle spasms take over. :thumbsup:

It is addicting. I spent a good part of my summer evenings doing this at the pond. Before I started cleaning the population out there would be numerous turtles in every direction. Now its a lot harder to find one.

 

[Dan Hunter]

This thing is rather evil:

 

[Western]

I used to get up in my FEL on my big Case tractor and shoot them, allot better angle when your up around 18' on the bank shooting down.

 

[toppop52]

Snappers can leap vertically from the ground to around 36"-42" depending on how big he is and how warm it is. They have a nasty disposition and are best left alone unless you have a weapon of some sort. Considered a big delicacy by many southern blacks and some whites as well. We use to sell all we caught for $1-$2 ea. in the late 60's.

 

[ncnurseryman]

J just saw the biggest snapper I have ever seen in our pond. Now I know what was getting the muscovy chicks last year. Never ate turtle but its worth looking into.