Hunting Turtles

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  • RedDot

    Plinker
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Apr 15, 2010
    88
    6
    Columbus
    Anyone here have any experience hunting or trapping Indiana turtles to eat? I have never broke down a turtle but am very interested in eating one.
     

    yetti462

    Master
    Rating - 100%
    5   0   0
    May 18, 2016
    1,627
    113
    Unglaciated heaven
    I always jug lined or limb lined a pond I knew had turtles. Use liver or bacon as bait. Usually a shallow pond will hold a big snapper.. I never figured out an easy way to clean one.
     

    phylodog

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    59   0   0
    Mar 7, 2008
    18,752
    113
    Arcadia
    My grandparents always had lines out for turtles and cleaned/ate them regularly. I watched my grandfather clean them numerous times but I don't ever remember eating the meat. Having watched the work involved I have no desire to follow in their footsteps on this particular path. My grandmother always said a turtle had four (maybe five?) different kinds of meat in them, pork, beef, chick, etc.. It always seemed to me to be easier to get those various kinds of meat from the original critters lol.
     

    bocefus78

    Master
    Rating - 100%
    39   0   0
    Apr 9, 2014
    2,023
    63
    Hamilton Co.
    Jugs on a pond is how I used to do it. Gotta have a boat or canoe for retrieval though. Use heavy braided line. I'm talking 100lb test big. 20 oz soda bottles are a great size jug. Put a glow stick in each one for nighttime. Don't forget the beer and pliers. Chicken liver worked best for me.

    You will get a fair amount of catfish with this method also.

    Fun fact. I used to catch big snappers for an old timer from his private lake. He kept an old trash can with water in it for me to put them in. He would do the cleaning at a later date.

    One year he forgot that I had put a couple in there in the fall. That can froze solid over the winter and those damn finger removers were still alive in the spring. I would have never guessed.
     

    66chevelle

    Sharpshooter
    Rating - 100%
    25   0   0
    Jun 16, 2008
    741
    43
    greenfield
    I use a trot line and limb lines. My local Kroger carrries chicken hearts and gizzards. I like them because they hold on the hooks a lot better. I have also used gold fish with really good luck. I use big hooks. My buddy gave me 50 or so salt water hooks that work great. I also use 4/0 circle hooks. You can buy limb/trot line at Walmart I believe it’s rated for 235 pounds. I will usually only keep the ones that are as large or larger then a basketball. My biggest so far hardly fit into the bottom of a 55 gallon drum. He was huge. I grabbed his tail then had my brother put the oar under his body to get him in the boat. I use a old broke chest deep freezer to clean them out. I drilled a hole in the bottom and installed a drain. That way I can change the water when it gets dirty. The easiest way I have found to clean them is cut there heads off and stick a garden hose in there neck. Fill them with water till there skin separates from the meat then take a disposable sliding razor blade and cut the skin and shell away from them. A K-bar works great for the snapper shells but the razor blade works great for soft shells. My family likes the meat but I have some friends that don’t. They claim it tastes fishy.
     

    red_zr24x4

    UA#190
    Rating - 100%
    4   0   0
    Mar 14, 2009
    28,795
    113
    Walkerton
    When I was a kid we used to live by a small pond / swamp that would dry up every year in the summer.
    When the water was gone, the bottom would be level, Except where a turtle was, It would have a low spot.
    We had long fiberglass poles we would probe down. If you hit something hard start digging. I can't count how many turtles we pulled out of there over the years.

    Never cleaned one. We had an old guy who would clean them for us. give him one for himself and one for us. First time I ate dogfish (and last) his wife cooked it. it wasn't bad.
    My mom would never eat rabbit or squirrel. but if we brought home a turtle look out
     

    poppy

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    May 4, 2012
    7,378
    38
    South of Indy
    I use a trot line and limb lines. My local Kroger carrries chicken hearts and gizzards. I like them because they hold on the hooks a lot better. I have also used gold fish with really good luck. I use big hooks. My buddy gave me 50 or so salt water hooks that work great. I also use 4/0 circle hooks. You can buy limb/trot line at Walmart I believe it’s rated for 235 pounds. I will usually only keep the ones that are as large or larger then a basketball. My biggest so far hardly fit into the bottom of a 55 gallon drum. He was huge. I grabbed his tail then had my brother put the oar under his body to get him in the boat. I use a old broke chest deep freezer to clean them out. I drilled a hole in the bottom and installed a drain. That way I can change the water when it gets dirty. The easiest way I have found to clean them is cut there heads off and stick a garden hose in there neck. Fill them with water till there skin separates from the meat then take a disposable sliding razor blade and cut the skin and shell away from them. A K-bar works great for the snapper shells but the razor blade works great for soft shells. My family likes the meat but I have some friends that don’t. They claim it tastes fishy.

    This is the method I use as stated by 66chevelle. To dispatch the turtle, I wait till the turtle sticks its head out and then I use a small piece of 2x4 and smack it square on its nose, breaking its neck. Then cut the head off and stick the hose end without a nozzle into the neck and wire it for a fairly tight fit. Then I turn on the water full blast for a minute or so.
     

    indygunguy

    Expert
    Emeritus
    Rating - 100%
    110   0   0
    Dec 12, 2010
    1,338
    48
    NE Side of Indy
    I used to have a mutt (pitbull-lab mix) who would walk through my parents farm fields and suddenly make a beeline few hundred yards into the woods and come back with a turtle in his mouth. He did this dozens of times. He'd always run back to the house through the dog door and try to eat them on the floor of the living room (mom usually stopped him from actually killing them). I don't know what his deal was, but he loved turtles and could sniff them out hundreds of yards away.

    I know, I know, not all that relevant to this thread...

    Carry on.


    :bacondance:
     

    trailrider

    Expert
    Rating - 100%
    5   0   0
    Jan 2, 2010
    1,122
    38
    GREENSBURG
    I string a trot line from a stump using small cut up bluegill for bait. I absolutely love turtle soup but absolutely hate cleaning them. It totally creeps me out when they keep moving hours after dead. I also use the hose method stated earlier. I completely cleaned one with nothing left but the tail attached to the shell and the tail was still moving. Creepy. It was the big one in the picture. Biggest turtle I've ever seen.
    photobucket-5656-1372001890451_zps98b7dab1.jpg
     

    churchmouse

    I still care....Really
    Emeritus
    Rating - 100%
    187   0   0
    Dec 7, 2011
    191,809
    152
    Speedway area
    Grew up on anything you could catch kill clean and cook.
    Anything.
    I have lost my taste for game. I pay folks to hunt for my family. Krogers/Meijers/sams club come to mind.

    I will smash some summer sausage.
     

    Fargo

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    13   0   0
    Mar 11, 2009
    7,575
    63
    In a state of acute Pork-i-docis
    I string a trot line from a stump using small cut up bluegill for bait. I absolutely love turtle soup but absolutely hate cleaning them. It totally creeps me out when they keep moving hours after dead. I also use the hose method stated earlier. I completely cleaned one with nothing left but the tail attached to the shell and the tail was still moving. Creepy. It was the big one in the picture. Biggest turtle I've ever seen.
    photobucket-5656-1372001890451_zps98b7dab1.jpg
    I step on the shell so they stick their head out and tee off with a 2x4 to smash the head, break the neck, and kill. I then remove the claws with shears as they don't know they are dead for hours...
     

    bwframe

    Loneranger
    Site Supporter
    Rating - 100%
    93   0   0
    Feb 11, 2008
    38,170
    113
    Btown Rural
    I string a trot line from a stump using small cut up bluegill for bait. I absolutely love turtle soup but absolutely hate cleaning them. It totally creeps me out when they keep moving hours after dead. I also use the hose method stated earlier. I completely cleaned one with nothing left but the tail attached to the shell and the tail was still moving. Creepy. It was the big one in the picture. Biggest turtle I've ever seen.

    After purging for days, I bled and parboiled the last turtle I cleaned, taking hours. Still the heart was beating when I got to it.
     

    Trigger Time

    Air guitar master
    Rating - 98.6%
    204   3   0
    Aug 26, 2011
    40,112
    113
    SOUTH of Zombie city
    This is the method I use as stated by 66chevelle. To dispatch the turtle, I wait till the turtle sticks its head out and then I use a small piece of 2x4 and smack it square on its nose, breaking its neck. Then cut the head off and stick the hose end without a nozzle into the neck and wire it for a fairly tight fit. Then I turn on the water full blast for a minute or so.

    It actualy shoves their nose bone into their brain but that's the method we used growing up and later too. We always let them sit somewhere with alittle water for a couple days before killing them so their bowels got flushed out. I don't know if it helps with anything this is just how the old timers did it and it was passed down. Then it's 2x4 time. After thst, grab the nose with a set of pliars and stretch that neck out and chop the head off and bury it. They can still bite you
     

    Jerry C

    Plinker
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Feb 9, 2009
    98
    8
    Southern Indiana
    I have cleaned many snappers. I take pliers and grab the bottom jaw and stretch their neck over a stump or block of wood and use an axe to de-head them. The trick to stop them from fighting after de-heading is lay them on their back and pour a pan of boiling water over them. Works great. Then cut around the edge of the belly shell and remove it then split the skin on the legs and remove them.

    After I get the legs and neck out I soak in salt water til next day, then I de-bone and cut it in small chunks and roll in your favorite batter and deep fry. Mighty fine eating.
    ,
     
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