Caught a large snapper by hand yesterday

L

Loosearrow

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Took my 10 year old son (grandson) out to a creek yesterday. He said he was hungry. I said go ahead and catch something. He couldn't figure it out. I caught a large snapper turtle out of the creek, his head was as big as your fist. Moved him into the shallow part of the creek with a pole, flipped him over and grabbed his tail. He was pissed. Kept a close eye on him while I called home to see if my wife wanted to butcher a turtle. It has been a long time since I ate turtle. She said heck no. I let him go. Just wanted to show the boy that food is everywhere if you can work it out. Anyone eat turtles out there? How do you make it work for you. When you butcher them and take the heart out it will continue to beat outside the body for awhile. After you cut the head off be careful, they may get you. Even without a head when you grab the legs they will pull away from you. Interesting study. They have interesting bones, and I have kept some shells in the past. Regards
 
Never have eaten snapping turtles but softshell turtles are really good. They are pretty easy to clean too since the shell is soft, like wet leather. I chance onto one occasionally. Been awhile since I've had one though.

SDS
 
They eat snappers all the time at the plantation. Never heard anything about toxins before, I will have to check that out.
 
My Dad used to catch them whenever he spotted one and he didn't even look like a Yakuza member or even Tony Iommi. :D

After catching them without losing digits or parts of digits...

He would get my mother to boiling water, she'd use the pressure cooker because it was like a five or seven gallon cooker and a couple other pots that would hold a couple gallons each and out came the wash tub out of the shed!

Rolling boil.

Dad would take a shingler's hatchet, a pair of pliers and a stick. He'd tease Mr. Unpleasant with the stick until he latched onto it, grab the lower jaw with pliers, let go of the stick and chop the head off with the hatchet.

He had a board he did catchfish and snappers on, he'd nail it upside down by the tail and let it bleed. When my mother had a washtub full of boiling water, he would pull the turtle down and slip it into that hot water and I don't know how long he would let it set because the last time I saw it before he died was about 1980. The shell would turn gray and nasty and have a little bit of it sloughing off. Pliers again, get a leg or whatever he could up out of the water and let that cool enough and he would hoist him out, pop the shell and cut the meat out of the inside out of the shell and body. You will be able to tell what is organ(s) and meat, just eat the meat.

That's the way he did it, there are other ways.
 
We used to eat turtle soup made from snappers when we were kids. Good stuff.

If I rember right, it may tell you how to dress and cook turtle in Bradford Angiers "How to Stay Alive in the Woods" - could have been another book, I don't remember for sure.
 
I'll post some pics next time we get one, if anyone is interested. We get one every now and then on a bush hook. It's not that hard to clean, and there is a considerable amount of meat on a decent size one. When I was a kid, folks were still catching and eating the loggerheads out of the bay; now that is a hell of a sight, watching someone clean one of those. You will be under the jailhouse for getting one now.
 
I've had snappin' turtle- it's delicious. And yes, the heart does keep beating after you cut it out of them- for like a half hour!, And yes, they do continue to bite after you lop their heads off. Turtles are not terribly bright- it takes them a while to figure out that they're dead. I've never personally butchered one, but I've seen it done a few times. Basically you chop around the edges of the bottom of the shell to separate the top part from the bottom- kind of like a big, ugly clam. Then cut out the stuff that looks like meat. The skin on the legs and neck peels off pretty easily. Mmmm mmmm! That's good eatin'!
 
joninthetolet said:
how do you butcher a turtle anyway?
Click to expand...

Gotta love it! :D

I would like to learn a better way that doesn't involve a woman boiling about 10 gallons of water. My Dad was good, but I would like to know how to do it in the field much better in case I had to...or the mood just struck me to slaughter something prehistoric and eat it. :D
 
I nearly stepped on a snapper one time while strolling along the river. If there hadn't been a friend behind me who yelled "Hey dummy, look out!" I would have been hurtin' for certain. :eek: :o
 
I haven't had turtle in awhile, but back in the day, I used a butchering technique similar to moonwilson's.

I'd get the turtle to snap at a stick, then pull the head out enough to get a blade behind the head. Cut off the head. Then with a rock or chisel (depending if we were at a camp on the river or at home), break the side shells, and open it up. Cut out and clean the meat.
 
caught and ate one out of a cow pond when i was a kid - it was eating the fish we were catching and keeping on stringer. it was tough killing it with our swiss army knives. really good eating though.
 
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