Snappers!

Who catches, cooks, and eats em?

Me!

Some in my pond, come on over.

I've ate them many times. Good stuff! Caught a few to show the kids then released them. Never cleaned one.

Used to catch and eat a lot of them. Didn't do any turtle trapping this year

Do here.

I do

Are you talking about small bluefish? I'd rather eat them than the big blues. I would never eat a snapping turtle.

A snapping turtle grabbed a wild turkey gobbler here a few years ago. The turtle backed into the pond and drowned the turkey, then ate him. He left the skin and feathers. Several people heard the commotion and witnessed the event.

Doubt many snapping turtles have ever enjoyed wild turkey.

I use to catch them for Grandad and some others that ate them, but for me..NOPE!

I can't get past the smell of them, alive or cooked.

I was fishing the other day. A grey squirrel ran out on a floating log in the pond and got a hickory nut that was on the end of the log. On his way back to the bank a largemouth bass swallowed that squirrel.
A little while later I guess that bass got hungry again. He put that hickory nut back on the end of the log.

I don't target them, but if I come across one I'll grab it.

No, but I have on a warm summers night . . .

How do you guys like it cooked? Neighbor gives me some , cleaned every summer, I trade him fish. I’ve always par boiled and fried. It’s good, I dust it with a Cajun seasoning, s and p, garlic powder. I bet it’s good in a red soup.

John

Pretty much how we always do it.
You get it tender, it’s really good.

Vegetable soup, heavy with barley grain.
Probably a regional thing.

I have but its been a while. Softshell turtle is the way to go! Delicious meat!

Snapper soup is tasty. I had a friend that ground the turtle meat and made patties, he said he liked to chew them until the flavor was gone and then spit it out.

Same here with or without the barley

i will be set for them Thursday

I am tryin' to finish out a load for my buyer. This time of year a colder rain that drops the water temperature 5 to 10 degrees will shut them off feeding for the rest of the year. It has not rained much here for over 2 months and the water is real low in rivers, streams, lakes and ponds. The last few nights the temperature has been around 50 degrees. Shallow water cools much faster than deeper water due to colder nights. I fear it has had the same effect as a cold rain, last night I only caught 4 snappers out of 12 traps, all 4 were in one trap in a small farm pond completely out in the sun all day. Tonight I set only 6 traps, 2 in a stream about 2 miles apart and 4 in 4 different ponds. If I have few or none tomorrow they are done for the year around here. Last year they shut down on August 20 right after a hurricane went thru. Most years shutdown is between August 30 and Labor day. I have noticed in years past that if I happen to set snapper traps the night before the feeding shutdown the traps will be stuffed with snappers. Last Friday I set 10 traps and had 35 legal sized snappers, I hope that was not the night before shutdown!

Well I got 14 legal snappers out of the 6 traps set so they are still going to bait in. 5 traps had 2 turtles each and 1 trap had 4. Going to set a large amount of traps tonight to hopefully finish out my load.