Odd Trout Stream Catches – Yerdel the Turtle

I counted my Yahoo calendar. For 2009 I’ve fished 28 times. With trips planned I’ll be up to 40 before the season closes Sept 30. I’ve been skunked 1/2 dozen times.

Well, technically not skunked. There have been a couple of unusual catches. I would not know how to drag home a turtle and eat it. Maybe some of you would. I’ve caught these dudes on crawlers and chub tails.

Anyone like to eat turtles? Dad told me a story. He had a MG convertible. Fishing Tonka and had a stringer of crappies fishing from shore. Crappies were eaten by big snappers. Netted them. Threw in the back trunk of MG to sell to a coworker who liked turtles. The turtles ATE his trunk. Shredded. They even gutted out his wiring system to his brake lights! Let the turtles go before he could try and sell to coworker on Monday.

Tom “Blue Fleck” Donaldson here on IDO eats the heck out of snappers earlier in the spring. He claims they’re great. If I remember right he put up a report on catching them. I’ll see if I can’t track that report down and link it here.

PS – your posts ROCK!

Hopefully he’s not in your trunk! He’s Huge!!!

While I’ve never had Turtle, I’d like to try it!

Neat looking pictures!

I ran into a guy at a boat launch with a huge snapper in his van. He was up from New Orleans after Katrina. He said he could tell what way the head faced by felling the shell with his barefoot. Not something I would like to try.

Complaint Department

Written by: Len Harris
Photos by: Len Harris

I was walking stream side the middle of April and I ran upon a HUGE snapping turtle sunning itself.

I estimate the turtle’s weight at 30 pounds. I had never seen such a HUGE snapper close up. My camera was out instantly.
I determined this turtle to be between 20 and 30 years old from data I researched on the internet later. The world record common
snapper was 86 pounds. Common snapping turtles take their scientific name (Chelydra serpentina) from their long snake
like neck.

I attempted to roll the turtle over on its back to take a photo of its underside. It was not happy with my first attempt.
After three attempts I got it on its back and bent down to take this photo. I glad I did NOT get any closer to the
turtle. I was kneeling to get a good photo and the turtle righted itself almost immediately and took two steps towards me.
I quickly backed up.

More research found that Snapping Turtles have legendary reputations for their powerful bites.
Human Bite: 120 pounds pressure
Great White Shark: 600 pounds pressure
Domestic Dog: 315 pounds pressure
Snapping Turtle: 1,000 pounds pressure

Snappers are also opportunistic feeders meaning that they’ll eat anything they can overpower and swallow.
While their principal prey are crayfish, fish, and aquatic larvae of all kinds they have also been observed
eating baby ducks, snakes, small mammals and even smaller snapping turtles.

My curiosity got the best of me and wanted to test the bite of the snapper. I witnessed that snapping turtles
close their eyes when they snap to protect their eyes. Every little stick in the area was shredded by this
massive snapper.

More research revealed this snapper to be a MALE snapper. The 2 determining factors on male or female are
the girth of the tail at the shell. Wider tail at shell means male. The distance of the waste disposal unit on the
tail is the over riding determination on male or female. The further down the tail it is….The more likely it is a Male snapper

All I can say is, thank God snapping turtles are slow! They are grumpy and aggressive. I tried saving one on a road late one night by prodding it with a tire iron. Instead of trying to get away, she turned 180 degrees to square off with me.

Now I know the best way to move a snapper is to just get behind them and grab them by the tail. They are strong son of a guns too. They are tough to move even by the pull the tail method.

My first two photos are a turtle caught 8/4. He hit a 3″ chub tail. The third photo is a turtle caught in a crawler on 7/30. Caught him before I caught the 22″ male brown (river pig).

Friend of mine grew up in a farm. His dad was dressing out a snapper. Cut off head and threw guts out for the chickens. A half hour later a chicken comes over and pecks at the snappers tongue. CHOMP! Off with the chicken’s head in one clean snap!

batterfried turtle is excellant

Quote:

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batterfried turtle is excellant

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No kidding. What is the best part? Guess I need to learn how to dress out a turtle. Id’ be the only one eating though. Wife will only eat my trout if they are fillet and beer battered.