In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
That ain't no Crappie
William81
Member Posts: 25,352 ✭✭✭✭
Made a few casts for crappies the other evening.....hooked this guy on the first one....got him unhooked and he was off..They sure can be mean when you try to free them. 😜
Comments
I grabbed a big one like that and put him in the trunk of my 73 Continental. Real UTT OH when I found him on the wheel well clamped on some wires. Got him out easily, somehow
Would have been "crappie" he had got a hold of you.
I've cleaned a lot of them but only one in the past 20 years. I cleaned and cooked one a couple of years ago just to show my youngest son that you could and how to do it.
We caught a big snapper on a set hook when I was a kid.He had tangled the line on something on the bottom and could not come up for air.When we pulled him in he must have been half drowned because he never offered to bite when we put him in a burlap bag to take him to someone that made great turtle stew.About an hour later when we got where we were taking him and dumped him out of the bag he had revived and had a completely different attitude and was ready to take on the world. Old Mr. Snapper earned my respect that day.
That would have been a hard decision, eat crappie or eat turtle. Had a friend that cleaned one once, after he had cut the head off it clamped down on his finger, dam near took his finger off. I always put a stick in their mouth after I had cut the head off.
Old Appalachian saying:
They won’t let go of you until it thunders.
I've seen them in the 80-100 lb range.
Them big ones can snap a broom handle with their bite.
Seen a guy loose couple toes when he was seining fish bait barefooted. It was same area where I had seen the 80 lb ones come from.
He said he just felt a sting the toes were gone so fast.
He later used shoes when seining fish bait.
Really great eating. Used to find their "breath" holes along the river go down with a hooked rod and have fresh meat!
Back in the late fifties a big one crawled to back of our house from a near by swampy creek area in Henrico Co., Va. He had the high point on his back and looked like he had armor plating on. I call them Snappers but different than your picture. I think one in picture is flatter and as i understand are good eating.
Well this one was a monster and my medium sized dog Zero went crazy barking at him. Zero got too close and this Snapper latched on to him right through his gum and into his lower jaw on right side. Never heard a dog holler so pitiful. This snapper would not let go and i tried beating him off with a shovel and no luck. Finally in desperation i ran in back door for my razor sharp hunting knife and cut that suckers head off. Took Zero to Vet because he was a mess. Many stitches and took weeks to heal.
Never let your dog go near one of these things if you can avoid them. It is true, I don't think they will let go until it thunders.-----------------------------------Ray
"They won’t let go of you until it thunders."
OR you can shorten the wait by putting 1/2 dozen 22's through the shell.
they have said that all my life in Arkansas also
know how to clean a turtle?
you raise his tail and wipe his *
Here in OK, the ones with the very pronounced ridge down their back are referred to as Alligator snapping turtles. No idea if that is official and don't care enough to look it up. But, that's what we call them. They seem to be the nastiest of the nasty attitudes. They can sit at the bottom with their mouth wide open in slightly murky water. They then wiggle their tongue and small fish and minnows think it is a worm. They swim down and in range and the turtle will snap its mouth shut so fast it makes an audible sound. There was a place I used to scuba dive some that had a resident alligator snapper. He was ~15" around at least. Anyway, we'd sometimes put a minnow on some mono fishing line and drag it in front of him. It makes a believer out of you. I know they say some alligators and/or crocs have a bite force of 2000# per square inch. I wonder what these fellows can do.
My brother was fishing for crappie at Mark Twain lake and he hooked this
Used my phone and got a sideways picture again