On the River

[Pine]

I started shooting a bow and arrow when I was six years old.
I would spend the summer with my grandparents who lived on a lake. I would take my bow with me and shoot out in the yard and nearby treeline.
Then one day I was down the lake shore and these older boys I knew were shooting into the water.
They told me they were shooting carp.
That was so neat and they helped me get a jar lid attached to my bow and showed me how to wrap the heavy fishing line wrapped on the jar that was screwed to the jar lid.
They even gave me a fiberglass fishing arrow and I was all set.
Then they explained refraction to me, whatever that was and I started shooting in the swimming beach.
I couldn't understand why I always shot way over what I was shooting at.
Then one of them got a paper cup, filled it with sand and placed it in a little over a foot of water.
That was my target. Then again it was explained about refraction and after a while I could hit the paper cup.
Well that started it, I was hooked.

[Pine]

Fast forward to my early teens and I had joined the boy scouts and one of the leaders lived on the small river that would occupy me right up into my mid twenties.
I would ride my bike the two miles to his house and go back to the river and stalk my way along the bank.
It didn't take me long to realize that you don't just walk up to a carp and shoot it.
I would be walking on the bank and every once in a while the water would explode and off would go a wake and be gone.

[Pine]

Then I figured I could climb a tree, stand on an overhanging limb and wait in ambush.
Well that didn't work either, I learned about being silhouetted against the sky.
I finally figured out to set in thick brush to my back right on the ground.
Finally got my first carp with a bow, it was small, about twelve inches but I got one.

[Pine]

When I was about fifteen, I heard about bow fishing at night with lanterns.
And my dad helped me make a lantern holder that would attach to the front carry handle of my Sports Pal canoe.
A friend of mine from school volunteered to padded me on the river and I would stand in the front of the canoe and shoot.
That was amazing, I couldn't believe how I could see in the water as if it wasn't even there.
That first outing I got about a dozen carp and the next day my mom took a picture with them spread out in the lawn and me in the middle with my bow.
Unfortunately I don't have that picture anymore.

[Pine]

A few weeks later my dad's aunt that lived in South Carolina came to our house for a visit.
She had two boys that were just a few years older than me and I knew they were archers too with the older one shooting competitively.
I went and grabbed the picture of me and the carp I had taken with my bow.
I'm sure that will impress her.
She told me that was very neat and then pulled a picture out if her purse and showed me a picture of cousin Roger.
It was of him standing next to only one fish; an eight foot Alligator Gar he shot with his bow a few weeks ago.
You could almost hear my bubble burst.

[Pine]

Buy the time I was a senior in high school I had another friend that would go out with me and he shot a bow too.
We would take turns shooting and paddling. We would change places by crawling through the legs of the one standing up. Never had a mishap with that maneuver.
Then this one time I saw a big snapping turtle with its head and neck sticking out from under the bank.
I pulled up and shot it in the neck.
Got it to the canoe and I just so happened to have some pliers so I grabbed its lower jaw, took the arrow out and put it in a burlap bag.
The next morning I asked my dad to help me dress it out because I had seen him do it once a few years earlier.
He told me to take it to my grandpa's house and he could teach me better.
So I did, that old man talked my ear off about turtleing and I learned he used to trap them for years.
I was hooked. Took a few turtles that year and I shared them with my grandpa.

[Pine]

It was about the next year we were out on the river and I just happened to see a snapper pull its head back under the silt on the bottom of the river.
I quickly shot into the mud and sure enough, I got it.
That same night I seen another crescent shaped mark on the bottom so I shot a couple inches down stream from the mark.
BINGO !
I had just discovered a secret that set me off getting several turtles every time I went out.

[Wudstix]

Memories!!!
 

[Pine]

Now I'm gonna tell you my grandpa was very happy to help me butcher turtles .
We would do about five or six a day and he would keep what he wanted.
I then asked him how many turtles I had to let him have and he told me I could stop when his freezer was full.

[Pine]

At about that time I had concentrated my time on the river to just hunting snappers and almost didn't shoot fish at all.
I'm also asked quite often why I would shoot them in the neck and the reason is, you definitely don't want to shoot them in the shell and with the arrow in the neck, it's much easier to control them.
Grab the bottom jaw with pliers, pull the arrow out and put them in a burlap bag.
Sounds simple, what could go wrong?
My friend wanted one time to get the turtle under control himself because up to now, I was doing it no matter which of us shot.
So I gave him the pliers, he got the lower jaw, took the arrow out and I held the bag open.
As he lifted the turtle up, it pulled its head back and its body jumping up towards his hand.
The next thing there's a very upset snapping turtle on my lap with its head just inches away from my face.
I jabbed my hand under it, flipped it down by my feet and got ahold of the tail.
Yelled to get the bag open and got it in without so much as a scratch.
I couldn't even tell you how many times I heard "I'M SORRY!" over and over.
I did all the the getting the turtles under control after that.

[Pine]

Back in the mid 70s in Michigan we had no season on snapping turtles nor a size limit .

This one night a friend of mine and I were on the river , he was paddling the canoe and I would stand in the front with lanterns mounted and shoot snapping turtles with my bow .
Now the season for spear fishing in Michigan was over about two weeks earlier so I was strictly turtle hunting .
We had a fairly good night with five turtles that were from twelve to fifteen inches across the back shell . As we were coming back the truck about 2:00AM , we noticed another truck parked there as well . When we climbed out of the canoe and started walking to the truck with a gunny sack full of turtles a very bright flashlight came on and was right in my eyes . A mans voice said keep coming on up to the road and bring that sack with you . It was a Conservation Officer  . So we did . He asked me what was in the sack and I told him snapping turtles . He told me to empty the sack here in the road at his feet . I asked him if he was sure and he insisted . So all five of the turtles that were very upset to begin with began to posture , hiss and snap at his feet . He jumped back and was obviously surprised and scared.
I then asked him if he would hold the sack for me and help get the turtles back in the sack . He told me that he would be glad to hold the flashlight for me .
He had never even heard of getting turtles that way and I explained how I shot them threw the neck so they are easier to handle and you don't get the arrow stuck in the shell .

Sure do miss those days . It was about fifteen years later that they started the turtle season , size limit , bag limit and you couldn't use a bow and arrow or spring device .

[fmscan]

Pine, Good stuff, you grew up the right way! Well done.

[durp]

best read we've had in a while...THANK YOU !!!

[Sam McMichael]

Interesting story. I've never hunted turtles, but it sounds like fun.

[Captain*Kirk]

You make me wanna shish-kabob some tortoise. Thanks for sharing a great tale!

[rastaman]

Thanks for sharing that sir!  It was a mighty good read!

[Deertaker]

Good story! So I have to ask, what to they taste like and how do you cook them?

[Pine]

Well for starters there's white meat and dark meat.
Not 7 diffrent meats. There's kinda a taste of chicken and fish at the same time.
As far as cooking, they are inherently tough so you need to parboil with the juice from a can of pineapple and the water will foam and you skim it off for about an hour

Then change the water and bring it to a boil again and then drain it off.
Now for my favorite way, you roll it in flower with salt and pepper and fry it up like you would do with chicken.
Theh are not easy to dress out because they will fight you all the while so I like to nail the feet to a couple 4x4s and most importantly, do not cut into the liver, if you puncture the gall, it's all over.
The gall will penetrate the surround meat instantly and make it unbeatable.

[BAK]

I have butchered them before, and they will kick and scratch and just not quit.  Now I have an old friend who swears this works.  Hang them by their head, cut off the tail, and they will bleed out and DIE.   

[olddogrib]

Apologies for the aside and this story I believe has appeared here before, but the good one's get better with age.....  My dear old departed fishing buddy got me into setting hooks and eating snappers.  One morning many years ago on the way to work I spied a whopper in the middle of the road.  Since it had just exited a cemetery pond it didn't appear as tasty as my river-caught ones and I thought I'd just take it on into work and give it to my buddy.  I put it in my truck bed and continued on my merry way.  About a mile from work I glanced in the rear-view and saw an elderly lady in a Benzie with a horrified look on her face.   A millisecond later I caught a glimpse in the side-view of the snapper doing a "Geronimo" out of the bed off the driver's side wheel well...who knew those short legs could climb?  I saw it bouncing , rolling, skidding and spinning right down the centerline with cars swerving into both lanes to miss it.  And yes, I did the cowardly thing...kept going.  All I could think of was how I could convince the "Good Hands of Allstate" that I had no idea how that sucker got in my truck and I was therefore not responsible for all the carnage. I pulled over at the next intersection and my conscience got the best of me....after about 10 mins. and hearing no sirens.  The very pissed snapper was laying on its back and clawing the air right on the yellow line and no wrecks! The delivery was completed without further incident.  I told my buddy, "I'd put that thing in your dog kennel.