this job STINKS....literally, but i enjoy it. i do it because i like to eat the turtles. i go out in the summer months up here in New York into a swamp with my boat and traps(live catch) and my bait(chicken livers, or worse). the swamp smells like a septic tank becasue of the methane being released and of course your hot and sweaty. once you find a good spot to drop the trap you must bait it and go set others. once your done you must check them every day and rebate them everyother day. The decomposing bait is quite putrid and it lingers on your hands. turtles take time to catch, if im lucky ill get one the next day if not it might take a week to get one big enough. once i catch one that is big enough..over 20lbs i take it and the trap home.
once home i get it out of the trap and put it in a large bucket, make sure you dont get bit by the way. once its in the bucket it stays in there for a week to flush out its feces, because if its in the digestive tract when you cut the turtle up you might rupture the intestine wall and spill the feces on your meat. the water is changed every day so that the turtle doesnt swim in its own feces. after the week ends you must clean your turtle which takes hours depending on the size of it. after you kill the turtle you must wash its shell and skin because its covered in algae and other things(leeches). if you dont then the turtle will smell terribly. once thats done you start cutting it up, the hide is tough and hard to cut through i usually must sharpen my knife after every appendage. when the meat is cut off you place it in a bucket and when you done you bag it up and put it in the freezer for diner later.