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It amazes me how these people that catch snapping turtles with their hands haven't lost any digits of them. I took a quick little, short video of a snapping turtle hiding waiting for a fish to swim by last summer. You couldn't even see the darn thing he blended in so well.
https://rumble.com/v44bkto-snapping-...66lt3&mc=9e0fe
You’re right.
It was back in the early 70's my grandfather use to take me out on some ponds on private property to hunt snapping turtles. His method back then was a dead bluegill hooked through the back attached to steel leader with the other end attached to a milk jug. We would wait till the jug started bobbing, and then go pick it up and toss it in the boat. He loved his turtle soup. I miss the days of fishing with him on Lake Erie as a kid. We would go out with just a handheld compass and come home with a metal coke cooler full of yellow perch. I think about it now, and I wouldn't head out on the lake most of the time without my GPS. lol
When on vacation in Canada as a kid, we usually managed to catch a snapper and have either fried turtle or turtle soup. My Dad would clean the shell very good, salt it, and let it outside for the flies to eat the last bits of meat off of it. Then, he'd clean it up, varnish it, and hang it on the wall. My son really enjoyed doing to with my Dad when he was young. I probably have 10 nice sized snapper shells on my cabin wall. Now, snapping turtles are protected in Ontario and can not be taken even for food.
There used to be a guy at Toledo Bend who sold snapping turtle shells to tourist. He had several fingers missing that he said the turtles got.
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Originally Posted by Jeff Hahn
Rather disgusting story, but back in the 1990's I worked at UPS as a hazardous responder. I had a call in the middle of summer that they had a mess in the bottom of the trailer they were unloading. To give you an idea, it was in mid 90 degree range and the inside of that trailer was probably 100 degrees or more. Back then the trailers were drop frames with flaps you had to lift up and secure to the wall with packages stored underneath them. Well, that particular day I lifted those flaps with my partner and low and behold to my and his horror. There was probably foot to 18 inches of magots covered in the bottom of the trailer squirming everywhere! The smell was enough to knock you out. We put on SCBA because the smell was so horrific! The point to the story when we cut the boxes open to see where all the magots were coming from. They just oozed out of them like a volcano's magma! The whole bottom of the trailer was filled with boxes full of cleaned turtle shells going somewhere in New York to have clocks made out of the shells. They didn't clean the shells well and the rest is history with magots. I can still envision that smell and view to this day.Quote:
There used to be a guy at Toledo Bend who sold snapping turtle shells to tourist. He had several fingers missing that he said the turtles got.
Attachment 539384Quote:
Originally Posted by bigbass201
In the late 1980's my Dad left some liver that he used for turtle bait in the small upright freezer at our cabin over the winter. At the time he didn't know that the electricity was shut off over the winter. When I got there in the spring, the guy who opens the cabin for us had moved the freezer on to our back porch. I opened the lid and damn near died! In addition to the liver, there had been containers with ice in them and also a couple loaves of bread. All of this had rotted into one nasty mess! I emptied it out and tried to clean the freezer with hot water and dish soap. It still stunk badly. My Dad talked to a funeral director friend who gave him a container of white powder that is put inside body bags to stop the stench when a rotted corpse is found. By golly, that white powder took all of the stink out of that freezer and we still use it today!
I'd love to know what that white powder was. That seems like would be good thing to have on hand for incidences like the one with your cooler.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Hahn
30 yrs ago, camping. A gentleman was dragging a snapping turtle to keep it from going back in the water. Got it to the road, cut his head off . Said don't touch it, it will still snap, too a stick to his mouth. He chomped on the stick, my pal,s dad would take them . Clean them to eat. Used an axe to the underside, looked to be a lot of work, it was good eating.
My grandfather cleaned some when I was a little kid. I remember them cleaning them with an axe. It must be some tough meat to get through.Quote:
Originally Posted by hot rod