Turtles.....

[Handsome Rob]

I see a heck of a lot of turtles whilst out bowfishing at night.

Softshells, & snappers make for some real good eating.

Can we legally hunt them in TN?

[andersmg]

Sorry, if there is no official hunting season on any animal in TN, then you can not hunt it.

There is no hunting season for turtles.

[Ebow1]

Is it hunting if you pick one up, take it home, and make a meal of it? I just think for something to be called hunting it should require a little more work then that.

[tnsyty]

www.tn.gov/twra/pdfs/fishguide.pdf

Turtles

A sport fishing license is required and only the

common snapping turtle may be taken. Turtles

taken by sport fishing methods may not be sold.

Common snapping turtles may be taken by

all legal sport fishing methods except archery,

spearguns and dipping. Daily limit is 5 with a

minimum legal length of 12 inches. (Length is

determined by measuring the upper shell from

front to back.) Sport fishermen may also take

snapping turtles by the use of up to three hoop

nets, with minimum net size of three inches on

the square in Benton, Carroll, Chester, Crockett,

Decatur, Dyer, Fayette, Gibson, Hardeman,

Hardin, Haywood, Henderson, Henry, Houston,

Humphreys, Lake, Lauderdale, McNairy,

Madison, Obion, Perry, Shelby, Stewart, Tipton,

and Weakley counties. Each net must be marked

with the name and address of the owner. Each

net must be set so that a portion of the catch

area is above the water.

No turtle may be possessed while afield which

has been altered to the extent that its species

and/or length cannot be determined.

Edited July 23, 2011 by tnsyty

[Guest clownsdd]

Good info search tnsyty...

[Handsome Rob]

Thanks tnsyty!

Now, how'd you get one on a hook?

[BigK]

When I was a teenager, my dad and I went frog gigging with friends/relatives all the time. We almost always came home with a snapper or 2. Good eats! mmmm turtle gumbo!

[ShaunM]

Snapping turtle is good if cooked right. I catch a lot of soft shell turtles out of the Buffalo River, I wouldn't eat one anyways they stick really bad.

[Guest GunTroll]

How do you butcher a turtle? I'm thinking a spoon is used somewhat?

[roverboy]

Thanks tnsyty!

Now, how'd you get one on a hook?

If your asking about, what to use for bait. You can catch'em on chunks of fish,chicken guts,beef liver,etc. Limb lines will work but, you may get fish on too. You never know. Turtles are a little tough to clean. Especially the first time you do it.

[Oh Shoot]

How do you butcher a turtle? I'm thinking a spoon is used somewhat?

Bust the breast plate with hatchet to get started is one way. I've seen folks use bungie cords or cargo straps to wrap around tree and hold the shell at edges to make it easier. I've seen at least one commercial rig designed to hold one this way too.

You can also cut around top of breastplate that attaches to main shell using arm and leg recesses as access. Takes a sharp knife and some gumption, and best to wear heavy gloves in case knife slips.

I've never had softshell, but have had big snappers twice (I didn't have to clean them). Outstanding fare. The "7 different meats" (or maybe it's 5, I disremember) in a turtle saying is pretty much true.

- OS

Edited July 23, 2011 by OhShoot

[BigK]

My dad would round off one of the corners of a putty knife and sharpen the 2 of the edges where it had been rounded. This let it bend a lil to the contour of the shell. Of course first he'd have to use a hatchet to cut/bust the bone around the edges on the sides.

Good ole redneck ingenuity...

[Guest Lester Weevils]

There is a great black'n'white 30 minute documentary made in 1961 about a farmer in southern Louisiana or SW Mississippi who makes a living hunting giant alligator snapping turtles then toting them to New Orleans and selling them to the fish market down in the French Quarter.

The Turtle Hunter (2006) - IMDb

I thought I watched the documentary online a few years ago. I thought maybe saw it on Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine. However, can't find the film viewable online for free right now. At least from a legit source. Maybe saw it on TV.

It is neat film to see resourceful "primitive" hunting. The day to day skill the fellow shows not getting killed in his trade. Hunting out in the swamps every day by himself.

The film shows the man paddling thru the swamps in his cajun pirot boat (skinny canoe) looking for bubbles in likely spots. When he spots turtle sign in the opaque muddy water, he stands up (!!!) in that skinny little po excuse for a boat and fishes around on the swamp bottom with a long-handled garden hoe. Just standing up in that silly excuse for a boat deserves an olympic prize, much less hoisting 50 or 100 pound turtles out of the water with a garden hoe.

Once he pulls em into the pirot, they look stunned and sluggish and he quickly ties up the feet and mouth and stows the turtle in the back of the boat and goes looking for more. It shows him paddling home at the end of the day with a half-dozen or more huge snappers.

He has a big turtle pen made of cypress sticks and chicken wire, half flooded with water and half dry. Dumps the catch in the pen and unties them. Saves up several days catch then loads em up in his pickup truck and heads to market with a whole bunch of big live turtles.

I've messed with a couple of snappers nowhere as big as the snappers this dude was catching. One was an Illinois snapper and one was a TN snapper. Both of those turtles were surprisingly fast with agressive temperament. The TN turtle was maybe 2 foot long, sunning himself on a road. I was gonna be a good samaritan and chase him off the road before he got run over. Poked him with a stick to get his attention. He lifted up on surprisingly long legs and chased me back into the truck and then stood by the door staring up daring me to get back out. So I decided if he wanted to sleep on the road it was his own dern biz.

It was strange how "sedate" the big swamp snappers were acting in that film, compared to the ones I've met. Most likely another testament to the skill of that cajun turtle hunter. Maybe the turtles wouldn't have been so easy to deal with, in the hands of someone who didn't know what he was doing.

[bajabuc]

I googled this...have a look

Cleaning a snapping turtle - ThunderBucks.com

[tnsyty]

Thanks tnsyty!

Now, how'd you get one on a hook?

I have caught them by accident fishing in ponds and they get on the hook while reeling in a small fish. There used to be some guys who would wade around the banks of the pond with hooks and grab them from the waters edge.

[DaveS]

We use Limblines baited with fish parts. Nice thing about, catch a catfish or two in the process. Stagnant back water areas are best for snappers. Please be careful while handling snappers. Their bite is extremely painful and could cause loss of digits!

[JAB]

I have caught them from our private pond when fishing for catfish. The ones I have actually pulled out have pretty much swallowed hook and all and have been when I was using my heavier 'catfish' rod/reel. They make for a fun 'fight' and can really bend a rod. Man, are they pissed when they come out of the water - hissing and snapping like some latter-day dinosaur. We want them out of our pond - especially the big ones - because the pond is small. Being there isn't room for a lot of fish, we don't need big snappers wiping them out.

I tried to cook one, once. My grandfather in law (who used to catch/clean them for his mom to cook when he was a kid) said the easiest way to do it would be to boil the whole thing and then remove the shell, guts, etc. Well, getting the shell off was pretty easy but the darned thing smelled so horrible when boiling that we couldn't eat the meat - the thought turned our stomachs. I managed to choke down a bite or two and it didn't taste bad but that smell kept coming back to me and I just couldn't do any more. I asked my grandfather in law how they stood to eat the meat after smelling that smell when he was a kid and he replied, "Oh, that's not the way we did it. That's the way that was recommended in a book I looked it up in. I always cut the edges of the shell with an axe, cleaned the turtle, cut the meat out of the shell then mom cooked it." Just the other night I was giving him a hard time about telling me how some book said to do it rather than telling me the way he knew to do it.

I tried, again, not long afterward. I wanted to keep the shell so I used my Dremel with a cutoff wheel to cut the back and belly portions of the shell apart. It worked well (I still have the back part) but there was just enough of that 'turtle boiling with guts inside' smell that I couldn't bring myself to cook it. It has been a few years, now, so I'm thinking I might be about ready to try, again.

Edited July 28, 2011 by JAB

[Oh Shoot]

... 'turtle boiling with guts inside' smell that I couldn't bring myself to cook it. ...

Yeah, I think it's sort of a universal suggestion to clean the innards out of whatever you killed before you cook it.

- OS

[Guest GunTroll]

Yeah, I think it's sort of a universal suggestion to clean the innards out of whatever you killed before you cook it.

- OS

I subscribe to that philosophy.

[JAB]

Yeah, I think it's sort of a universal suggestion to clean the innards out of whatever you killed before you cook it.

- OS

That's what I was thinking, too, but here was a man who had cleaned many a turtle, before, telling me that was the way to go. You can imagine how annoyed I was when I found out that wasn't a method he had ever used but just what some stupid book he had suggested.

[jughead]

i caught a good sized one about 20 years ago and a guy at camp killed it. he had a big pot of water boiling and dropped it in it. he kept watching it and as soon as he could pull a toenail off with his finger he took it out. rubbed the skin with a rough cloth and it came out white as snow. cleaned turtle, battered it skin on and deep fried it. no bad odor and we almost fought over the last piece.

[Guest Appalachian]

I ate some years ago when I was a kid, our next door neighbor would catch sevral turtles & keep them(alive) in barrels of water untill he had enuff for a mess or let'm them clean out(I really dont know but thats my guess).

One day he calls me over & tells me to try some of his cook'n & holds out a plate filled with a stack of golden fried something on it, I grab a piece & give it a go, it wasnt bad at all, he asked me "ya know what that is Albert ?" (short for fat Albert) I told him " I dont know" so he sez IT'S BULL PECKERS !!! I exclaimed IT AINT EITHER !!!!, he's like oh yeah it is to.

So later I went to check his barrles just to make sure they were empty & they were so it was turtle meat...I hope.

Second time I had tutle it was in a soup, nasty stuff it was, dont want no more of that, I' take the "bull peckers" over turtle soup anyday.

[DaveS]

I ate some years ago when I was a kid, our next door neighbor would catch sevral turtles & keep them(alive) in barrels of water untill he had enuff for a mess or let'm them clean out(I really dont know but thats my guess).

One day he calls me over & tells me to try some of his cook'n & holds out a plate filled with a stack of golden fried something on it, I grab a piece & give it a go, it wasnt bad at all, he asked me "ya know what that is Albert ?" (short for fat Albert) I told him " I dont know" so he sez IT'S BULL PECKERS !!! I exclaimed IT AINT EITHER !!!!, he's like oh yeah it is to.

So later I went to check his barrles just to make sure they were empty & they were so it was turtle meat...I hope.

Second time I had tutle it was in a soup, nasty stuff it was, dont want no more of that, I' take the "bull peckers" over turtle soup anyday.

+1

[Guest robinsonfam1]

Sorry, if there is no official hunting season on any animal in TN, then you can not hunt it.

There is no hunting season for turtles.

not entirely true......not trying to start a fight here but the area of no posting means no hunting is very grey. you need to call your local TWRA office for clarification. Make sure you get name of OFFICER (not the secretary) and document your phone call time date and some details if it is decided to be legal. there are lots of criterias involved. (just because Unit L gets 3 does a day and no one else does doesnt mean unit l is over the bag limit. make sense kinda?)

some animals are protected and not mentioned in lil regs book. Might want to look in fishing regs book. lots of times they are posted in there since its more of a fishing than a hunting thing.

I do know that most states do not allow alligator snappers. I harvested a 20# snapper by bow years ago and it was a tough long arduous battle of wills.

Ever cleaned a big turtle? lol. have fun if its your first! i have the award of "Been there, done that, wont go back!"

[DaveS]

The taking of Snapping Turtles IS legal in state. I'll research the particulars here in a bit.