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This guy is a little one. Guess these critters live to be like a 1000yrs old. :)
Hope they let it go in my buddies stocked pond like they claimed. :frown:
But they eat these things down here.
They burrow in the mud and wiggle there tongue and bite fish in half when they get lured close.
Alligator snapping turtle I think it is. These things get big as a friggen truck.
Wade in the waters down here and they will take your toe off in a heart beat.
Yup dry land for me. :)
I pulled one out of the OhioRiver last May that size while fishing for cat.Gave it to the Ferry Operator.
They have really nasty attitudes. And yeah, they can take a nice size bite outta one's hide if your not paying attention. I've seen one before that was almost three feet long, snout to tail. That was one seriously bad-assed turtle!
They are good eatin too! They don't get to be the size of trucks though. In the old days you could find them 200lbs. Now days the big ones are less than a hundred and those are rare.
I have seen them a bit bigger than that up here in N FL in the Santa Fe river with all kinds of growths coming out of the shell. They were probably alligator snapping turtles, so they are left alone to do what they want to.
My wifes family eats the regular snappers up in Mi. They cook the meat in a turkey fryer with a little seasoning salt and it tastes good.
These good old boys keep offering me turtle meat. Said it has a number of different tastes.
Still kinda holding off till I get a little hungrier. :rofl:
Now gator meat is plentiful down here and that is good and I will eat that.
Think I will hold off on the turtle though. :rofl:
The last turtle meat I tried tasted like Mississippi mud. I'll stick with alligator when it comes to eating lizard looking things.
RetVet, the wifes uncle who catches and cooks them says you have to put them in fresh water for a couple days to sort of clean them out before you butcher them.
I bet the shop that I bought that turtle meat at in Wisconsin failed to do the "cleaning" routine you mentioned moleman. It was about as close to real "road kill" taste I ever want to get.