We've caught somewhere around 40 turtles this season in total right from my pier, sometimes catching 5 to 6 in a night. While many are under the slot, we have also released many legals. A few have pulled hudini moves and escaped from the tubs we were keeping them in. One second you'd be hanging out and the next someone would be asking, "Who let the turtle go?" as it made it's way slowly to the waters edge.
Well, finally I sealed the deal after keeping one from Saturday and let me tell you, that was the FIRST time for me, and it WILL BE THE LAST time for me.
There is nothing more disgusting than cleaning a snapping turtle. First of all, you feel just wrong lopping his head off, but it isn't as easy as one would expect. To ensure accuracy I used a cleaver that was as sharp as can be - a Wustoff. It took a couple swings to break through, and while the head was departed, just like dad said, it would snap if you tapped the nose with a stick.
The body, although continuously crawling headless across the lawn, was tied by the tail and hung in a tree for 2 hours to bleed. 8:30 rolled around and I told the wife, "I'm going out there. If I don't do it now, it will be waisted tomorrow."
It appeared done when I untied it from the tree, but once on the ground, 2 hours after hanging upside down with its head cut off, it KEPT ON CRAWLING... So I cut off his feet like the directions suggest.
The ENTIRE TIME I was skinning this monster, it never once stopped moving!!
It's footless legs swung like stumpy arms and I felt like although the brain was gone, it's body was trying to protect itself. I mean that when I gripped a stumpy leg to cut it off, it moved with a lot of force until I could find the muscle source allowing all the movement. It was a battle to cut main muscles to slow it down, but even detatched and in a bowl, they would convulse.
I thought to myself, "How can this thing have any predators? What could actually deal with this in the wild?"
Get this. Skin and legs (front and back) are now removed, so I remove the tail and breast plate of shell. I then carve out the insides from the shell... There is a membrane inside the shell that if you pull, it guts the thing like grabbing onto a wind pipe of a deer when gutting and pulling the whole package out.
Now, with the guts seperated from the body completely, the HEART CONTINUED TO PUMP!! I am totally freakin' serious! This thing was disgusting and had me ill. I couldn't even filet the meat off the bones - I'll do that tonight.
So next time someone wants to keep a turtle out of my group - I'm not cleaning it!
On another note, the directions were easy to remember and other than having the living thing fight me the entire time - literally - it was very basic to clean, just odd.
