Turtle Neck Soup

OUTDOORS: Tiny bubbles lead to snapper success

Tools included a gaff, a long pole with a wooden notch at the end for snagging the tossed line and an assortment of simple tools such as pliers for removing hooks for small turtles, a short sledge hammer for pounding the stakes and also a crate to store the caught snappers, in this case a heavy plastic chicken crate secured with a tight bungee cord because the strong snappers can, and will, burst forth from the lidded boxes. Kantz recalls the time a bunch of snappers got out of the crate, crawled over the bed of his truck and made their escape in his home field. In preparing the bait, Kantz cuts the thick lungs into chunks. He slides a large chunk up the hook, twists it around, slides more of the same piece along the shank, twists it around again and then a third time; the purpose, he said - giving me another lesson - is to prevent the bait from sliding down the hook either by the pull of turtles or the nipping of bluegills. When a snapping turtle hits the bait it hooks itself. This is not a technique in which you need to rear back on a rod. Sometimes a caught turtle will lie out in the deeper water at the farthest distance from the shore but often they swim towards the bank and wedge among the thick shoreline weeds. If Kantz spots a line pulled full-length against the shoreline, he'll announce that the situation "shows promise" and a number of times these promises are fulfilled. The actual landing of the turtle involves snagging and lifting the line with the notched pole, following the line through the weeds, then reaching down for the turtle while trying to avoid the snapping jaws - often on a precariously slippery bank. With the turtle flailing away, the gaff is quickly run under the shell and the turtle is lifted as the gaff point hangs beneath the ledge under the turtle's top shell, or carapace. Retrieving gear from the back of his faded red truck, Kantz pounded a wooden stake into the bank's harder soil, tossed a baited hook into the water, then moved off to make another turtle set. It was the first of some twenty hook-and-stake sets made during the first evening of snapper hunting at six ponds and one sluggish stream. The next morning Kantz retrieved four armor-shelled snapping turtles weighing between twelve and sixteen pounds - "average size," he said, for the dangerous but delicious snappers. I spent a weekend with Kantz catching snappers. It meant going out one evening to set stakes and lines, checking the bait and pulling in turtles the next morning, rebaiting the hooks, going out again the second evening, checking and rebaiting the hooks, going out once again the next morning, collecting more turtle meat, then yanking and storing the whole kit and caboodle. Tools included a gaff, a long pole with a wooden notch at the end for snagging the tossed line and an assortment of simple tools such as pliers for removing hooks for small turtles, a short sledge hammer for pounding the stakes and also a crate to store the caught snappers, in this case a heavy plastic chicken crate secured with a tight bungee cord because the strong snappers can, and will, burst forth from the lidded boxes. Kantz recalls the time a bunch of snappers got out of the crate, crawled over the bed of his truck and made their escape in his home field. In preparing the bait, Kantz cuts the thick lungs into chunks. He slides a large chunk up the hook, twists it around, slides more of the same piece along the shank, twists it around again and then a third time; the purpose, he said - giving me another lesson - is to prevent the bait from sliding down the hook either by the pull of turtles or the nipping of bluegills. When a snapping turtle hits the bait it hooks itself. This is not a technique in which you need to rear back on a rod. Sometimes a caught turtle will lie out in the deeper water at the farthest distance from the shore but often they swim towards the bank and wedge among the thick shoreline weeds. If Kantz spots a line pulled full-length against the shoreline, he'll announce that the situation "shows promise" and a number of times these promises are fulfilled. The actual landing of the turtle involves snagging and lifting the line with the notched pole, following the line through the weeds, then reaching down for the turtle while trying to avoid the snapping jaws - often on a precariously slippery bank. With the turtle flailing away, the gaff is quickly run under the shell and the turtle is lifted as the gaff point hangs beneath the ledge under the turtle's top shell, or carapace. With a line of evening thunderstorms moving down the valley between Shade and Tuscarora mountains, we set and rebaited the hooks on the second evening. Through the indigo clouds moving over the peaks, we observed the damage done to the valley's farms by a tornado several months back. At one farm the barn was ripped up and leveled while just thirty yards away the farmhouse was completely sparred.

Turtleneck Soup

 I love turtlenecks. I just like the look of them, whether you wear them by themself or underneath some kind of jacket they just look good. So this week I was extremely pleased to find you can get three of ‘em for the tiny price of L$25 thanks to SF Design and its participation in Monday Mania. I swear the items you can get from Monday Mania keep getting better.

The three turtlenecks you can get from SF Design this week are part of the browns pack and you get the light brown, dark brown and just plain brown. Lovely turtlenecks they are too, the texture of them look very warm and cozy, I love the creasing just beneath the chest. The browns are excellent, brown is such a peaceful colour (least I think so anyway) and it’s easy to work with. Speaking of easy, these turtlenecks are very much a case of ready-to-wear, the prim neck fits easily and that’s all there is to it. All you have to do is decide whether you’re going to wear it untucked or tucked (or under something else) and you’re done.

So there you have it, another awesome  Monday Mania item to snap up from SF Design, three turtlenecks for only L$25!

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