Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Got my snapper today!

After about four days he finally showed up in the trap. Not that big. Probably about 10 lbs. I'm going to set the trap in the morning again to make sure there are no others. If he or she was the only one then he or she looked bigger in the water when I first saw it.

I would have taken a pic but the wife has the digital at a seminar she is giving in Vermont. It was also getting late and I wanted to move the turtle live to a river about 5 miles away before it got dark.

the title of this thread made me think...
MAN that is a pondMASTER if he is raising Red Snapper IN A POND!!!!
sorry I just got a giggle out of that

Cecil...congrats on the capture. Got a 20 lber from my pond Sat morning and one not quite as big from BIL's on Sunday. Course, we eat the things, so I can't wait til another finds it's way to my place!

way to go Cecil, lets hope its not like some cats and dogs that find their way back home over extraordinary distances.

BTW, Matt....what does turtle taste like? chicken? never tried it. what do you eat? the legs or what. i guess i've never seen a turtle body out of the shell.

Matt- I would like to know how you clean a turtle?

Used to eat these when I was a kid. We got the turtle to grab a stick, held him upside down on a board with neck extended and nailed his head to board. Then you cut the bottom shell off the critter with a tin snips by cutting the bridges that run from the bottom shell to upper shell. Once you pull this off you can simply filet the legs out of the shell. Then you cut off the feet and peel the skin off the exposed portion of legs. More than you wanted to know? The only meat are the front and rear legs and thighs. They say that there are pieces of meat in a turtle that taste like beef, chicken, and lamb. It all tasted about like chicken to me. Maybe that's cause we fried it.

I recently found a way to clean a turtle easily! It saved lots of time. Cut off the head and let it bleed for a few minutes. Then stisk a garden hose in the neck and clamp it down with a hose clamp. slowly fill with water. It will start to look like a parade float! This proceedure separates the skin from the meat. I am thinking of packageing hose clamps and calling it a red neck turtle skinning kit! If you use a hoseclamp on a turtle neck.......You might be a redneck!!!

PFF

Try this link http://swampstalker.proboards92.com/index.cgi?board=swamptalk&action=display&thread=1148607572

Thank You all for the answers, but that looks like more work for less meat than I would ever be willing to do. :rolleyes: :p

It's really not that hard.

Step on the shell to squoosh out the head....shoot the dang thing in the pea-sized brain and then stay away from the jaws, cause they'll still clamp down HARD.

Grab jaw with pliers, and stretch out the neck and put a 16d or 20d nail through the head, shell bottom facing up. I tie a string to the end of the tail and hang a 5 lb weight from the string and let it hang off the end of the cleaning table.

REALLY sharp pocket knife and fish skinning pliers are all that's needed. Grab each foot by a toe and cut off at the joint. Cut between upper and lower shell halves (gristly joint) and cut the skin around each leg hole. Peel off the skin w/knife and pliers. Lift off shell bottom and just twist/cut off each leg, the neck and, if the turtle's big enough, the biggest part of the tail.

There's also a small filet right under the top shell, but you gotta remove a couple bones with pliers first.

Soak in salt water, parboil to remove fat, lightly flour and brown well. Put it in a dutch oven over a bed of brown/wild rice plenty of salt and pepper and maybe some Cajun seasoning. Cook at 325 F for about 9 days (actually closer to 3-4 hours) and it'll be as tender as any other meat.

Can't say it tastes like anything else, just really good. We always have half a dozen at our fish frys and I never get any...it's gone before we're done cooking fish.

It's not to everyone's taste...then again, I hate filet mignon...

I've heard they taste good etc. but I guess I'm not in a killing mood this year. I actually felt a kinship for this guy. We're both ugly, mean, and slow, and eventually I may have his physique!

He calmed right down when I put him in the container to move him -- like he knew I wasn't going to hurt 'em.

On another note as I walked out the door with the dog this morning to feed the fish, we were greeted by a possum. She broke it's neck before I could stop her. I guess it's instinct. :rolleyes:

I don't kill snappers and eat them, but I do like playing with them. Sometimes, when I'm around the pond and bored, I pull one out of the water and play risk with the brute.

"Snappy, yur aight little fella!"