Posted: 4/17/2008 4:46:57 PM EDT
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How do you catch turtles? Shooting, Trapping. Is there a special method? I see turtles all the time when I go out looking for rabbits and stuff, and I wanted to know, Can you catch'em, if so can you eat them? 
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I'm not a turtle fan but my uncle sure was. It was his favorite food. I kid you not, he simply went around the banks feeling for holes and would stick his hands in and pull them out. He wore heavy gloves but use to always say, "A turtle is lazy beast. When he digs his home he doesn't even bother to dig enough to turn around in and if it is big enough too lazy to turn around." Tj |
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Well the only turtle I have eaten is snapping turtle. You can trap them with special traps, catch them with hooks, find the females laying eggs in May. Shooting them with a bow and arrow with fishing attachment works, but shooting them with a firearm is likely to result in a lost and wasted turtle. Eating them... Boil them for a short time, peel the skin cut them open and flesh the meat out. Actually the meat is quite good in soups. I grill mine slightly to give it flavor and serve with sherry and scallions.... |
You make a box trap out of wire mesh, there should be patterns if you google it. The trap allows the turtle in from under the water line but it can't get back out. The trap has to have one end up above the waterline so the turtle can breathe. We baited the traps with chicken bones with scraps of meat still on them. We only ate the snappers. 
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Stewed Turtle Ingredients Directions: 1. Cut off the turtle's head and drain off all the blood. Place in a pot of cold water to cover and bring to a boil. Remove the turtle and scrape off the black skin. Remove and hard upper shell and gut . Chop off the claws. Wash the turtle well and chop into 3/4 inch (2cm ) squares. Chop the chicken into 3/4 inch (2cm ) pieces and blanch briefly in boiling water for 2 minutes. 2. Heat oil or lard in wok over high heat to about 350oF (175oC), or until a piece of scallion or ginger sizzles and moves around quickly when dropped into the oil. Add the scallions, ginger, garlic, and peppercorns, and stir-fry until fragrant. Add the turtle, chicken, and soy sauce, and stir-fry for3 minutes. Add the stock, and simmer over low heat for 1 1/2 hours. Then turn the heat to high and bring to a full boil. Skim off the foam and add the rice wine. Remove and serve. Note: This fish features tender and succulent meat in a subtly-flavored clear soup. |
| if you want to do it really easy build a wire box or punch some small holes in metal trash can , weight the bottom so it sits upright in water lay a board that comes out of water up to the top of can or trap they will come out of water to sun on the board and fall into the trap when they slid back in the water. you won't catch all of them but you will catch a lot of them. |
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Check you state regs before trapping,hooking,etc Here, we can't "pierce" the turtle so hooks are out. Most folks make traps. A friend showed me an ingenious method, using a 220 with one spring removed, staked mid-water,and bait on the trigger. If the trap don't kill them, they drown. We always used to drop them into a 35 gallon pot of boiling water. Now, we kill them first. |
I agree make you you check the regs or dnr will hang you like a turtle 
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For snapping tturtles, i start off by cutting off the head and making sure the blood is well drained and the turtle has stopped moving (this sometimes takes over an hour). Then I scrape all the algae of the shell and skin. I then cut out the plastron ( bottom shell) and take the guts out. I boil the whole mess with some salt/pepper/bay leaves until I can remove a claw from the foot with my hands without too much difficulty. Then I remove the turtle form the water and let it cool until I can handle it without causing much pain. I then proceed to take all the meat off the skeleton. Chop up an onion or two, sautee in oil until transluscent, chop up a green pepper or two and throw it in. add a can of pimmientos and a can of corn, add a package of pork sausage and the turtle. Add a bottle of Pace Picante, heat up until the peppers are cooked and the suasage is done. Serve over rice and a cold beer. Good stuff, Maynard. |
| We catch large snappers by hand and put them in blue plastic drums filled with water for 2 weeks. This lets them clean out their system and makes sure they taste really good instead of being big stinky creatures. Turtle soup made like a vegetable soup is the best thing ever, It has other meats inside of the soup other than turtle and the meat is not in chunks but is very small. |
| You say not to shoot them? I always figured just coasting up next to them in the shallows with a canoe/kayak and putting a .22 hollowpoint through the side of their head would work alright. What kind of turtles do you guys eat? I've had snapper and soft shell before but am not sure about sliders. They'd be a hell of a food source if they weren't half bad |