One of my farm ponds I've discovered has some monsterous turtles. My crazy cousins from Florida say they're delicious. I'm all for eating them but have no idea how to clean them. They're huge back there as well. And often times I catch them when fishing for Catfish. Anyway. If any of you have ways to clean em or have any vids. That'd be awesome. Thanks for your help. Caught this guy the other day.
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Josh
John 3:16
Tuna fisherman/Great Lakes Fisherman
I haven't had turtle in a long time but I can tell you how we did it. Find a stick and let it bite on so you can pull the head out. Then use a hatchet to do the number on it. We then hung it by the tail to let it bleed out. Then we would skin it out.
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Put him in a tank of clean water for a few days to "cleanse" him.
Take a big tool of some sort and let him draw his neck out of the shell and 'snap' onto it and quickly severe his neck off. Now you can procede to open the shell from the softer under belly and clean out the entrails. Then you can start "cubing" the meat out. It is a lot of work but the meat is delicious as advertised.
turtle season is closed at the moment...just a thought
Does it matter if it's his private pond? I'm not sure, but don't think so.
I'd love to try the meat sometime. We used to catch huge snappers out of a small pond when I was a kid. We'd catch a couple bluegill, put them on a stringer, and throw it out in the pond. 10 minutes later we'd pull the stringer in and more than half the time a big ole snapper was hanging on for the whole ride in. We'd throw them in a bucket just for the heck of it. Kids do dumb and dangerous things when they have enough time on their hands. Glad I still have 10 digits.
This thread is kind of funny to see in contrast to the recent 'eating fish' thread.
Im fairly certain that it is a statewide deal, private or not. But I could be wrong. They close the frog and turtle season during their peak breeding and egg laying season.
But here's what i do, put it in a cattle trough for a week or so, changing the water everyday. On the last day you can dump some salt in the water to kill back the algae growing on its shell, make it easier to spray off with a hose. Then when its killing time grab the bottom jaw with a LONG pair of pliers and remove the head, do the same with the claws, they will scratch you up throughout the whole process if you don't. As far as the cleaning process, watch a video, or find someone who knows how to do it. It's not a difficult process but someone else's experience will save you a lot of time with the learning curve. There are a lot of little time saving tricks that took me a long time to figure out on my own.
Keep in mind when you are out turtling that there is a lot of meat on a turtle 3 or 4 turtles a year would meet the average consumers needs.
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limit your take, rather than take your limit
Alrighty. Thanks guys. Didn't know about the season. Popped the hook out and she took off. They just eat a ton back there. Seen a few 20+in bass with huge bite marks through em. A few of em are good. But I hate seeing big fish killed like that. Looks like I'll be waiting a few months
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Josh
John 3:16
Tuna fisherman/Great Lakes Fisherman
why wouldnt it matter?? closed season is closed season in the WHOLE state of ohio, not just on public land. dont kill any turtles until july.
I don't know if it has change but when my neighbor had turtle problems for his private, very well stocked pond he look into killing the turtles and basically they told him closed season or not he is allowed to maintain his property and protect his fish. They told him that since its private property he doesn't need a license for fishing, hunting or trapping. Also I do know that property owners have, in the past been able to harvest out of season for food and food only.
Its been some years since I looked into it so I don't know now but I actually think that harvesting that turtle even in a closed season might be ok. Definatley look into it.
Alrighty. Thanks guys. Didn't know about the season. Popped the hook out and she took off. They just eat a ton back there. Seen a few 20+in bass with huge bite marks through em. A few of em are good. But I hate seeing big fish killed like that. Looks like I'll be waiting a few months
Your still allowed to catch and get them out of there. Especially if they are damaging property. You can get special permission to kill them. My buddy got permission to kill deer that were destroying his grape vines
Thank you Russ. Its not a real hurry. This pond where they are has the best Bass fishing I've ever seen. They just take a few fish every once in a while. As long as they don't start doing damage to the dam or anything like such. I'll probs just wait until July. Open to more suggestions. Probs gonna search around youtube a lil bit tomorrow...
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Josh
John 3:16
Tuna fisherman/Great Lakes Fisherman
I don't know if it has change but when my neighbor had turtle problems for his private, very well stocked pond he look into killing the turtles and basically they told him closed season or not he is allowed to maintain his property and protect his fish. They told him that since its private property he doesn't need a license for fishing, hunting or trapping. Also I do know that property owners have, in the past been able to harvest out of season for food and food only.
Its been some years since I looked into it so I don't know now but I actually think that harvesting that turtle even in a closed season might be ok. Definatley look into it.
I could be wrong, but I have not heard of being able to harvest out season for food purposes anymore.. I would just wait until season comes back in. Let us know how you do...
How do you clean Turtles?
How do you clean Turtles?
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