Snapper soup tonight

I checked my poles this morning and the first set down from the ramp I had a turtle on. I didn’t see it well and thought it was just a softshell. I decided to go check the rest of my lines and take the fish off because at the time that was more important then a softshell.

I checked those and took a couple fish off, nothing big and went to rebait the first line and take the softshell off. I thought if hes big enough I keep him and clean him for dinner. When I first seen him he was on the side of some tree roots and mostly in the water and I didn’t get a good look at him. When I went back to take the softshell off the line he was back under the root system and had the willow pole bent halfway back twards him. I seen him laying back in the roots trying to hide himself and then seen he was a snapper. So I had to put my foot on one of the roots and the other in the boat and I broke away most of the roots so I could net him. I had to net him because of the reach to grab him and pull him out and away from the roots. I freed up the dittypole line and netted him.

At this time he got pissed and was snapping and hissing and it was no problem hearing him, you could hear his jaws slap shut. I put him in the boat and headed for the ramp. I got home and didn’t have time to clean him so I left the boat trailer on the truck. I placed chunks of concrete and bricks around the rim of the net and twice he got out of it by chewing a hole in the net, one time I caught him laying on the seat with his front feet on the side of the boat, he was ready to jump. Hes around 25 to 30 lbs. and mean as heck. The picture of him with his neck out is about half the length of what it really is and his mouth is about 3″ wide. Anyone for fried turtle, I’m having it for dinner tomorrow night and turtle soup sometime soon.

Sounds good to me!

Some day I hope to try it. I’m curious what it tastes like and if I would like it. Does it taste like chicken?

It tastes similar to roast beef believe it or not. Theres 6 diffrent kinds of meat on them and thier all good. It does have a faint taste of something from the water but if you didn’t know where it came from you couldn’t tell it. Its good breaded and fried eigther in a deep frier or in a frying pan. Its also very good in vegetable soup but you have to brown it first for more flavor. Its good to alot of people any way you fix it, snappers good.

Got a big softshell tonight from the same dittypole that I got the snapper on earlier today, so when I get some turtle traps made I’m going to set one there. I got another couple smaller catfish too and did find a place to catch small bluegills for bait, now I can get the bigger catfish that I’m after. I’m useing shrimp for bait because I couldn’t find any bluegills the size I want and thats why I’m getting smaller catfish. Bluegills about 2″ long, useing dittypoles around trees on and along the shoreline is what the bigger catfish want. By bigger I mean 15 pounds and under, thier a nice fish and not too big to not taste good. Big flatheads are there and checked out a few spots closer tonight with a buddy, to get a better look at what they actually are and it looks real good for bigger flatheads and channels. Nice deep water and big trees laying along the bank and out into the water with a big hole under the trees, perfect flathead areas. Time will tell in the next couple weeks when I target them with 6″ to 8″ bluegills. Something I’ve been noticeing is the amount of schools of shad around the fallen trees. They home in on those big trees for cover I guess or the food they eat. Almost everytime I got by most of the trees, shad start jumping out of the water from the noise of my motor right by the trees. If the shad are there, so are the catfish.

Very cool! My brother caught one when we were fishing plastic worms for bass years ago on the Mississippi. Good eating and completely wild how long the muscles and stuff keep moving while you’re cleaning it.

Quote:

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If the shad are there, so are the catfish.

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Are you sure.. I’ll just be looking for shads..

Ya JW, I cut the head off last night by putting the broken net handle in its mouth and grabbing his bottom jaw with a pair of channel locks. A neighbor held the tail and pulled hard while I pulled his neck out far enough to remove the head. I nailed him up to an end of my sawhorse and let him bleed overnight then cleaned him this morning, plus the couple catfish I got last night.

It brought back memories cleaning turtles with my old man when I was younger. The skin is really tough and even with a sharp knife I just sharpened, you had to work at it just to cut through the skin. I heard once turtles don’t die until they hit the frying pan and I know now what that means. Even with the head detached, when I would start to cut around the legs to remove the skin his leg would come up and try to push the knife away, each leg did this. Removeing the skin under the shell was the same story. To tell the truth I don’t know if a snappers dead just because the heads removed. Thier not involintary nerve movements, thier placed movements with each leg acting independently where I was cutting. Its was unreal, it was like the head was still attached. The head was still clamping down on anything you put in its mouth this morning after being cut off last night, now thats called tough.

Anyway got it cleaned and soaking in saltwater right now and when I get home from the river tonight I’m going to clean it further and then package it. I got about 12 to 15 pounds of meat, enough for 3 or 4 meals. It took about 35 minutes to clean it, it wasen’t hard but a guy just has to stick with it. Anyone whos cleaned or skinned a coon knows thats tough to get the hide off, this makes that look easy. Its been awhile but still knew how, its all basic butchering.

The only way they jumped for me Pal was when I motored by, but they do occasionally jump and right now thier around logs. Just throw a bluegill under 3″ long, next to a decent log or tree and just sit and wait, the bottom ends of the trees are better then the upriver end most of the time.

Hoping to get out on that part of the river in the morning. Plans changed so I couldn’t get any bluegills after work tonight. Hope to get into some tomorrow got the “flathead” rig all ready to go… now just need a flathead.
Never fished with anything this heavy duty before… crazy.

What’d you do JW buy a big river pole? Are you taking a boat? If you need a direction on where to fish let me know, I’ll point the way, theres alot of good looking snags down river.

Caught six decent sized bluegills Friday morning and stayed out on the river for a few hours. I had a “pike” pole that I never really used, so I bought a “catfish” reel.

Had a couple of bait clicker “runs” but no hookups. Could have been a stick tumbling downstream for all I know. There’s so little water all over down there I didn’t venture too far downstream on Friday. In-laws were in town so I didn’t fish on Saturday but Sunday morning I headed down to the mouth of Indian Creek. Caught a small SMB and a little warmouth. Nice to see clean water though.

I drive a ’98 S-10 silverish (pewter?) and I have a 16′ Polarkraft w/ 15 HP Mariner. Dan, I think I remember you saying you have a brown S-10. I might have seen you driving back towards Cedar Rapids Friday morning while I was making my way to the ramp below the C-Street dam.

That was probably me JW, If you ever see me at the ramp or out in the boat give me a yell and we’ll go for some fish in my boat. You have to know where the rocks are below the dam or you’ll shear a pin, its better to go with someone who knows how to get down river as the pass is just a few yards wide, and thats shallow but doable. If you were getting runs and not hooking them its smaller catfish running with the bluegill and not haveing the hook in its mouth. I’ve been getting smaller catfish on the minnows I’ve been catching with a no. 16 hook and half a wax worm at prarie park, nice sized minnows but not alot of them. Useing minnows you will get more hook ups. I quit fishing with the smaller bluegills because the small catfish are stealing the bait off the hook so I’m not going to waist my time getting bait when that happens. I’ll bait my poles again later in the week to see what the fish are doing and hopefully the bigger ones are starting to bite then.