They are way over-populated and a nussiance. Farmers complain about them damaging rice. This woman had me over to clean up her pond. Taking out 280 turtles out of a one acre pond means some fish are resting more than they're swimming. I'm actually thinking about doing it on a commercial level. It's getting to where so many people have ponds in the yard or next to their home. They function as two purposes. One is obvious, the other is dirt being 10 bucks a yard- they use the dirt to make the pad for their home.
I was fishing the other day and caught one the size of a half-dollar. He tried to scoot his ass back to the bottom, but I scooped his ass up quicker than he could paddle his little feet. He's currently residing is a buddies pond. Kind of curious to see how big he gets. Congrats on the catch, good looking Snapper.
Went set 4 nets today. Same vacinity I caught that big boy. Went scout a place the land owner wants to set Sunday afternoon and MAN, it looks prime. I caught two more this week. One 6 lbs and one 8. Alilgator snappers that size don't furnish as much as the Common Snapping turtles so I'm going to release them in a restricted area so they grow up to be bigguns.
I actually don't eat most of the ones I catch and I pretty much only catch/clean only what I'll eat. That doesn't make sense but here's why. For example, I have 4 in the barn. Three will be released. One is a very small common snapper and two are 6 and 8 lb alligator snapping turtles. They don't furnish 1/2 like common snappers so I release them since they can reach 100+ lbs. Maybe some chap will get the pleasure of catching a monster one day. The two I have are actually male and female. Caught them in the same net. Dumbass male prolly chased that poon in the net. Typical male. Still, I'd love to place them together in some program but there aren't many. Did find one in St. Amant and may try to contact fella. EDIT: Just found his number, called and spoke to him. I am going to hold them and hopefully get a couple more to donate to his recovery program. Told him I'd meet hinm in Port Barre later and deliver them. He seemed pretty stoked. He told me he is a former trapper and caught a bunch then decided to stop killing them and replenish.
@lsutiga I vaguely remember reading something in the last couple of weeks that turtle soup in restaurants is made with some kind of fake turtle meat. Have you heard of this?
