Turtles

I'll be cooking up my second turtle ever tonight. Made a big pot of excellent soup out of the first one last week. Been getting them out of a private lake in Geauga County. I've been using 4/O saltwater circle hooks on 30 lb steel leader attached to 80 lb dacron and hanging the rigs from fallen trees. Cut bluegill for bait. I think I'll be rigging up with steel cable crimped directly to the hook from now on because I've lost a couple rigs at the leader. I would be interested in anyone's favorite recipes or rigs.

 

Hard to kill for sure! On both of my turtles I cut the head off right after getting them home then hung them by the tail to bleed out. In the morning they were still moving with some coordination. After scalding with boiling water to clean, still moving. After cleaning and quartering and skinning, still moving. Muscles still twitching while rinsing and putting into bags. I'm not sure I have identified all 7 reported types of meat, but there certainly is a variety. Red meat on the legs, lighter meat on the neck, white backstrap meat between the ribs and shell. The backstrap is the hardest to get at since the ends of the ribs AND the backbone are fused to the shell. The first one took me at least an hour to clean and figure out the anatomy, the second about 40 minutes. I spent a lot of time trying to gut the things without breaking anything open, like the bladder. If that happened I think I would have been done.

 

I went turtle-ing this weekend. Got another big one, keeping it alive for a while to clean it out as some have suggested. This guy is one mean hombre, snaps at anything close. He got out of the cooler at my house and wandered over to the neighbors fence which set off his dogs. I was a little embarrased when he knocked on my door late last night and asked me if I knew anything about the big snapper trying to eat his pets. Something broke the hooks off a few of my rigs this weekend. I had 5/0 Gamakatsu nickel plated saltwater hooks on 1/16" diameter steel wire rope baited with cut bluegill. These were big, beefy hooks. Checked them about an hour after setting them out and found 3 of the hooks were snapped off. Two at the shank and one at the bend in the hook. I'm ordering some Gorilla hooks from Cabela's for this weekend. Not really sure I want whatever broke the hooks in the boat with me, though.

 

Shortdrift got me hungry. My turtle (Myrtle the Turtle, we call it) I got this weekend is just about ready for the axe. Cubed and fried it shall be. When my wife was a kid living in Meredosia, Ill. they had turtle on occasion. She says they used to fry it on the bone like chicken. Somehow her mom did it so it wasn't to tough. I might give that a try with one of the leg quarters, after I ask her mom for the recipe. Maybe she ran it over with the Chrystler a few times, I dunno.

 

The carapace (back shell) can be cut from the plastron (bottom shell) where they meet by sliding a knife between them. They are connected by tough membrane but not fused.

 

Got two more this weekend, which makes 5 so far. Keeping one in a cooler and the other in a tub for a few days to clean them out. One is about 10 lbs and the other about 8 lbs. Row V. Wade and I lost a monster at the side of the boat that had to be close to 20 lbs, scary big. Fried some of the last one I caught, very good with cornmeal coating. Also made some crock pot soup: some of the soup meat I deep fried and some I parboiled. I think deep frying helps tenderize it. I'm going to try Longbow's recipe (from another thread) with the next one.

Tackle: 1/16" dia steel wire rope in 5 ft lengths, both ends looped and secured with crimped aluminum ferrules. One end has a 7/0 Owner Gorilla live bait hook in the loop, I put a snap hook in the other end. I run the snap end around a tree and attach to the line. The snap is good because I can easily remove the rig when I get a turtle or won't be back for a while. It is not practical to unhook an angry snapper in a boat, in the dark and expect to keep all your body parts. I have also tried the rig on a jug, but without success yet. Seems like they pull it all over the place but don't get the hook set.

Bait: Cut fish. I've also heard about using beef neck or groundhog meat.

Noodling: No. Oh hell no.