First time I've ever caught one of these guys on a fly.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...g/turtle-1.jpg
One has to use care in retrieving the fly.
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First time I've ever caught one of these guys on a fly.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...g/turtle-1.jpg
One has to use care in retrieving the fly.
Yeah it happens and don't use glass beaded flies. They will bite the beads off the hook.:sad:
Just need a big Bullfrog to complete your amphibian fishing merit badge.
Heard a very loud gulp last summer and yup, this BIG bullfrog had a hold of my fly...put up quite a tussle too...needless to say, he won and got to keep the fly.
Funny you mentioned bullfrogs I was at a pond on Sunday and landed the biggest frog I have ever seen. It hit a black wooly bugger about six feet off shore.
Been waiting for that to happen to me. There are tons of turtles in the ponds/lakes in which I fish. Had one go after a popper once and I about laughed myself to death.
I believe the line will be cut. The fly doesn't mean that much to me.
Yup, caught one of those myself. It's amazing how fast they can move when chasing a fly. I could barely strip fast enough to stay ahead of one one day. The one I caught snuck up from below and grabbed it.
TxEngr
Quote:
Originally Posted by brhoff
Ummmm, technically turtles are reptiles, not amphibians. Worse I ever saw my 6th grade teacher (a sweet, little, old lady) flustered was when I mentioned that and she asked me to prove the differences. When I got to the point that amphibians reproduce by external fertilization and reptiles use internal fertilization, she cut my explanation short. At the lunch table that day, I had a lot of questions from the other students, mainly about birds and bees, not turtles.
Ed, who was mainly a non-fiction sort of child
Ahh, caught practicing a little poetic license.
When i was a boy I was fishing in the Mississippi river near Winona Minn. I had a chicken heart on a line (I was going for catfish) and I was messing with the rod with the bait suspended just below the surface of the water, when all of a sudden this huge and horrible looking head popped up from the depths and grabbed the bait - nearly scarred me to death. It was a good sized snapping turtle. I cut the line as there was no way i was about to put my fingers anywhere near that turtles mouth.
I've had them grab at flies occasionally, but i've never yet had one hang on like that. Nice catch!
I found this thought you might get some use out of it
Eric
1 Snapping Turtle
Any old soup recipe will work for (snapping) turtle soup. The main problem with turtle soup is cleaning the turtle. You have to be certain that every last speck of fat is removed from the meat before cooking. This is not too difficult because the fat is between the skin and the flesh.
To butcher a turtle you start by chopping off the turtle's head. Be careful because the head will still bite even after it is removed from the body and the body will still crawl away after the head is removed. Turtles don't die right away.
When the body stops trying to crawl away, dip it in boiling water and scrape off the exterior layer of skin, including the shell. The result will be a bright white carcus, compared to the muddy brown-green you started with.
Next step is to remove the shell. Cut along grove on each side between the front and back legs. It is the narrowest part of the shell. The tail, neck and all four legs are attached to the top of the shell. Remove from shell and you have the bulk of the meat. However, there will be some meat on the bottom shell and top shell.
It is at this point that you remove the fat. Just roll back the skin and with a paring knife and your index finger scrape out the fat.
I learned about turtles from my parents who learned from their German immigrant fathers. It has been told in family circles that my maternal grandfather would catch snapping turtles by hand. I never saw him do it because he was hit and killed by a truck when I was about nine years old. It was a big loss for me because he was just starting to teach me about turtles, wild mushrooms, dandelions and other natural things. He made the greatest doughnuts I ever ate.
Good luck with your turtle soup. Just cook it long with lots of vegetables and it will be good if you removed all of the fat. - Earl
From Earl Shelsby
Just watched a survival show. The show host said that the seminole indians just put the whole turtle on the coals . when the shell got brittle and easy to chip of with a knife the turtle was done. He then cooked the turtle he caught, chipped the shell off to reveal a suprisingly lot of white meat. Which he said really does taste like chicken.
I figure if it tastes like chicken, I'd rather just eat a chicken.
I've caught snakes and a bat but never a turtle.
All turtles in BC are now protected .
It should be easy enough to get that hook out with some needle nosed pliers or even foreceps. Hopefully its a barbless hook. I would not try it with a snapping turtle they are too strong and dangerous to tangle with.
Oh, well that's ok then. As long as you have a license...Quote:
Originally Posted by brhoff
Ed