June 9, 2008
Anybody have some turtle avoidance suggestions?
Saturday night was the annual catfish campout at my buddy's place on Smith Mountain Lake.
He pitches a tent on his dock in the back of the creek (on the Roanoke River) and we pretty much stay up all night fishing.
A couple hours before dark we start catching sunfish to use for bait. Then we cast them out, engage the clickers on our reels and wait.
We didn't have to wait long for action on Saturday. Unfortunately, it usually came from one of these buggers. We must have pulled in close to two dozen. It was brutal. Most managed to swallow the circle hooks so they cost us a bunch of expensive hooks.
We caught only four catfish all night and I have to believe it would have been better had these things not kept bothering our baits.
Does anyone have suggestions for keeping turtles at bay?
I realize that fishing in deeper water would probably help. And maybe we should use a float rig to give the sunfish a little more mobility.
Any other suggestions would be much appreciated.
Despite the bothersome turtles it was still a fun trip. And it actually produced my two biggest cats ever -- a 19-pound flathead and 29-pound flathead. I'll post a picture of the big cat soon.
Comments
[June 10, 2008 1:30 PM]
Mark TaylorA reader e-mailed me this recipe, under the subject line: If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em. It supposedly comes from some woman in Iowa.
I have heard that turtle meat is excellent if it's cleaned right.
Of course, cleaning them is a challenge in itself. I have no idea where to start, but I'm sure I could find directions.
But then there's the smell. It was not good.
That said, here's the recipe:
Oven Baked Turtle ~ 1 turtle, cut into serving pieces ~ flour ~ seasoning salt ~ pepper ~ oil ~ 3 cans cream of mushroom soup ~ 2 soup cans milk ~ potatoes, cubed ~ carrots, diced ~ 1 small onion, chopped Soak turtle meat in salt water overnight. Rinse well.
Season flour to taste with the seasoning salt and pepper.
In a skillet, heat the oil. Roll the turtle in the flour and brown on all sides.
In a large bowl, mix the soup and milk together really well.
Place the meat in a dutch oven and cover it with the soup mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees for 2 - 3 hours depending on the size of your turtle.
Half way through the baking time, add the potatoes, carrots and onion. Resume baking until the potatoes and carrots are done.
Serve using the soup mixture as gravy.
[June 10, 2008 3:28 PM]
Dan GenestSome 30 years ago when I was a cub reporter at the Pulaski Southwest Times, an old grizzled guy walked into the news room. He told me his name and said he was 78 years old and had something out in his truck he wanted me to see.
The tailgate on the truck was down and his buddy -- who was 76 - was standing beside it pointing into the bed. I leaned over and peered in and there was the biggest snapper I have ever seen - maybe the size of a full-sized passenger car tire.
I assumed they must have run over it with their truck or shot it as it crossed their yard or something like that.
"No," the older gentleman told me, "We done went out and caught it. Got six, seven all told, but this'un here was the biggest. Biggest snapper we ever seen and we been hunting 'em 60 years."
The younger fellow didn't do much talking, mostly grinned and nodded his head in agreement to whatever his friend was saying.
Essentially, what he told me was that they hunted snappers on Peak Creek and the New River. They would walk along the bank kicking it below the waterline to find snapper holes. When they found a hole, one of them would stick in a hand to see if the snapper was home.
I asked, "Wasn't that dangerous?"
“No,” he explained the snappers always went in to the hole head first.
If the turtle was home, one of them would bend down, grab the snapper by the back of its shell and pull it out until he could get the other hand on the front of its shell. Then he would wrestle the snapper out of the hole. Once out in the open the other member of the team would kill the turtle. If memory serves me correctly, they shot it with a .22 pistol.
In 60 years, the two reckoned that had caught and eaten thousands of snappers.
Of course, I had to know: "In all those years, did you ever get bit?"
"Only twice," the older man said as he held up his right hand...
The two middle fingers were missing at the knuckles....
[June 11, 2008 12:49 AM]
Scott : →http://www.wildwolfproducts.com/katbob.htmMark,
Floating the bait fish would probably be best. I bought some Kat Bobbers from Wild wolf products and plan to try them real soon. If using circle hooks with the bobbers I have heard the catfish will hook themselves.
http://www.wildwolfproducts.com/katbob.htm
[June 11, 2008 8:34 AM]
Mark TaylorThanks for the link, Scott. I was thinking bobbers could work this time of year when the big flatheads are up there shallow.
Thanks for reading.
mt
[June 12, 2008 3:47 AM]
BacklashDan Genest
You may have witness history and didn't realize it. A snapping turtle that large could only have been a Alligator Snapping turtle that could have survived in this area for a 100 plus years. And since the elderly man said he never seen one before could mean there was no mate for it too reproduce.
Sometimes our intent can be more harmful than we realize, how the animal may have gotten to this region I can only surmises a chain of sever storm events from North Carolina, South Carolina, or Northern Florida can anyone say alligator some day?
Alligator Snapping Turtle
The Alligator Snapping Turtle (Macrochelys temminckii) is one of the largest freshwater turtles in the world. It is a larger and slightly less aggressive relative of the Common Snapping Turtle.
Distribution and habitat
The alligator snapper keeps to primarily southern U.S. waters, while the smaller, more aggressive common snapper inhabits lakes and streams from South America to Canada. These turtles can remain submerged for up to an hour, and typically, only nesting females will venture onto open land.
Description
The alligator snapping turtle is characterized by a large, heavy head and a long, thick tail with three dorsal ridges of large scales (osteoderms) giving it a primitive appearance reminiscent of some of the plated dinosaurs.
They are a solid gray, brown, black, or olive-green in color, and often covered with algae. They have radiating yellow patterns around the eyes, serving to break up the outline of the eye and keep the turtle camouflaged.
There is an unverified report of a 403-pound alligator snapping turtle found in the Neosho River in Kansas in 1937. Average adult size is around 26 inches shell length with a weight of 175 lb. Males are typically larger than females. Alligator snapping turtles can also range in length from 16 to 32 inches.
Lifespan
Though their potential lifespans in the wild are unknown, alligator snapping turtles are believed to be capable of living to 160 years of age.
In captivity, they typically live from anywhere between 20 to 70 years of age.
[June 12, 2008 8:54 AM]
Static LinesMark
I was once told you could catch cat fish with some type of soap with which I can't remember, yet searching the Net for a viable answer produced this site with a possible solution, which looks promising.
Bait Soap and Soap Bait FAQ
http://www.catfishbaitsoap.com/catfish-bait-faq.html
If this doesn't work maybe this young lady got the right ideal for snapping turtles.
She cooks turtle stew.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUOt7In5_r8
[June 12, 2008 9:01 AM]
Mark TaylorInteresting theory, Backlash. I have to say that a number of the snappers we encountered the other evening were not too much smaller than a "car tire." They get big.
But, there are reports that a fishing guide at the lake had a huge alligator snapper in his bait tank last year. So there may be some of those around, too.
mt
[July 7, 2008 2:05 PM]
Will KMark, I think it's highly unlikely what you caught was an alligator snapper; common snappers get pretty darn big, too. I've eaten plenty of them; don't be put off by the smell (the meat itself doesn't smell like the outside, thank goodness!). The first course of business is to cut the turtle's head off. I typically hang it by its tail at that point to let it bleed. Use pruners to cut through the cartilage where the bottom shell is fused to the top shell, and cut through the skin all around the bottom shell to remove it. Dump out the viscera, and remove the neck, legs and tail where they're attached to the top shell. Then, cut through the ribs where they're fused to the top shell to remove the two "tenders" (pruning shears work well for this job, too). Skin the appendages out, and you're done. To me, the hardest part is getting used the the now-headless turtle trying to push your hands away while you're cutting it up! Anyway, the meat adapts to just about any recipe calling for stew beef; it tastes different, but it's good meat. Here's a favorite recipe http://www.gumbopages.com/food/soups/turtle-soup.html . Hope this helps.
Will