Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: mcginnis6010 on May 14, 2012, 05:47:06 pm
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Well as i was leaving to go to wally world there not 30ft. down the road from my house was a big ole snapper sittin in the middle of the road like he was just waitin on me to find him well i stopped the car and got out and went to go pick him up and not once did he snap or hiss at me. I have NEVER caught a snapper that didnt hiss and snap at me. I was simply amazed because i have had several lines out for the past 3 weeks and havent caught anything in them yet but here was a big 30lb. snapper not 30ft. from my driveway.
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Nice job! How much meat do you get out of a turtle that big?
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Thats a big snapper righ there. We dont get many over 10-20# up yonder. Much shorter growing season I guess. "SNAP" a pic?
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well i will be dispatching and cleaning him tomorrow as its pouring rain here today and hopefully tomorrow will be clearer but i should get a good amount of meat out of him Adam.
Thats a big snapper righ there. We dont get many over 10-20# up yonder. Much shorter growing season I guess. "SNAP" a pic?
Ill try to snap a pic today or at the latest tomorrow.
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Finally a break in the rain
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Another one
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If it is a female she might be ready to lay eggs.
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If it is a female she might be ready to lay eggs.
Its a male Pat. if it was a female the vent (circular opening on the underside of the tail) would be located under the plastron and in the pic you see that the vent in past the plastron. If it was a female i wouldve let it go to produce more turtles. I always check them before i take the turtles from where i caught them.
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Nice catch! Our season opens this weekend, Red Snapper in the Gulf, that is. ::) ;)
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This is kind of a stupid question, but how do you dispatch them?
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Save the skull. Simmer it for several hours and clean it up. They are cool looking skulls. I just did a box turtle that the mowers hit at work. I would love to get a big snapper skull.
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Save the skull. Simmer it for several hours and clean it up. They are cool looking skulls. I just did a box turtle that the mowers hit at work. I would love to get a big snapper skull.
Yea i think i will save the skull on this one.
This is kind of a stupid question, but how do you dispatch them?
The easiest way is to stun them and cut the head off quickly before they recover.
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Let me know if you need help along the way. I've done a few skulls ;)
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Let me know if you need help along the way. I've done a few skulls ;)
Ive done a bunch of snappers before but ive never kept the skulls of any so if i need any help ill let you know.
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That's probably an old animal. I grew up dreading those swimming in lakes, but I can't help but figure they're becoming more rare as they live and breed slowly. Are they protected at all? I'm not an animal rights nut, but I don't see the point in killing it.
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I looked up the regs, out of curiousity. Guess it's cool to harvest. Congrats.
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Parnell, the common snapper and the alligator snapper are quite a bit different. What he has is a common snapper, a very large full grown adult. I don't believe they are in any kind of risk at becomming rare. I am kind of a turtle lover myself.
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Im a turtle soup lover! Badger what woudl you guess its age at? 30-50 maybe?
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I hate to see turtles hit on the road. They don't have a chance. I hope I never see someone hit one on purpose >:( But, if I find one that's already dead, then I try to save it's skull. I have no problem with someone legally taking them to eat. I don't eat them so I don't kill them.
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I looked it up, they get bigger than I thought, up to 85# and live about 40 years. Yours must be about 15 roughly.
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yea i eat them when i catch them the limit here in Virginia is 5 a day. i have actually seen an alligator snapping turtle in a local zoo about an hour from here that weighed 300lbs and was 150 yrs, old it was incredible. My wife told be to never bring anything that big back home lol.
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Snappers are real predators. We had a 3 acre pond and they are a serious threat to anything that swims. We had a wood duck take 19 ducklings down to the water and between the turtles and the bass there were 3 left the next day and none left the following day. Most any evening I could sit on the deck and see a half dozen pop their heads up every half hour or so. To put a bass on a stringer was to feed a snapper there. Most people never see them, but there are a lot more of them around than you think. Interestingly, while I've seen lots and lots of adults, I've only seen 2 juveniles. I don't know where they go until they reach adulthood. The largest I've seen in the wild was 25lbs and I found it on the road. Most are between 10 and 20lbs.
George
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Growing up in Illinois, I saw both, I'm thinking. Saw many a duckling, gosling, whatever baby swans are, taken down. We'd find them in drainage ditches, and yards. In the morning dew you'd see their wide trails going from the pond in our backyard to the lake across the way. I had a buddy who found a dead alligator snapper in his lake. It was a monster, I recall. When they cleaned up the animal they found a musket-ball inside, under the shell.