Note: Unpleasant photo at URL



SALISBURY POST (Salisbury, N Carolina) 10 July 05 Turtle tales: 7-year-old reels in a big one (Paris Goodnight)

Photo: Peyton Greene caught this snapping turtle on her Barbie rod and reel at her grandfather's pond on Wednesday. The 3-acre pond is just off Old Mocksville Road on Lynn and Donald Marsh's 100-plus acre farm.

Seven-year-old Peyton Greene didn't want any turtle stew, but she will be retelling her turtle-catching story for years to come.

She was fishing at her paw-paw's 3-acre pond off Old Mocksville Road on Wednesday when the bobber disappeared and she started reeling in what she thought was a big bream. What she got out was a huge snapping turtle that she had snagged by the tail.

Was she scared? "Kinda," she said.

Does she think she's ready to go back? "I might go back," she decided.

Her grandfather, Donald Marsh, said he was fishing with Peyton and her sister, 5-year-old Parker, after bush-hogging the area to clean it up. He'd recently stocked the pond with fully grown fish that were already catching size and he thought Parker had a nice bream on her line when Peyton said, "Look, a turtle."

The turtle, which ended up being the "big one that almost got away," snapped at the bream on Parker's line.

"Their eyes were as big as saucers," Marsh said. "It went back under and I went and got my pistol out of the truck."

When it came crawling up the bank, Marsh said his wife and two granddaughters took off running. But when he shot the turtle, it went underwater and they thought that was the end of their turtle tales.

But not long after that, Peyton's bobber went under again and Marsh said he told her, "Reel it in." What she was reeling in wasn't a bream; it was a snapping turtle that was snagged in the tail by a little bream hook.

Peyton got it in with her little Barbie rod and reel that Marsh said probably cost $4 or $5. "I don't see how she got it in," Marsh said.

He grabbed the turtle by the tail and the girls took off running again. This time his gun wasn't loaded, so he asked his wife, Lynn, to hold on to the turtle.

He got a definite "no" as a response.

He tossed this turtle up on the bank and managed to get his gun reloaded before it could scoot away. After later getting a picture of Peyton and her trophy catch, he dispatched it to the woods because the girls said they didn't want to eat it.

"You can cook it, boil it in water," Marsh said. "I've eaten it before. There are seven different meats in a turtle and boiling it in water separates it from the shell. It tastes just like chicken."

But he said the meat spoils really quickly, so you almost have to boil them alive.

And even after a shot to the head, the second turtle was still alive. "They'll bite the crap out of you," he said, "and they'll grab a hold of anything."

Marsh said Peyton loves the outdoors adventures at his 100-plus acre farm, when she's not taking karate or playing sports. He said Peyton and Parker have toads and lizards to catch when they're not fishing or checking out the worm farm he recently started. The Food Lion retiree also has deer on the property that he took the girls to hunt, but that didn't work out well when they saw one from a stand and yelled, "Deer!"

He's offered them two garter snakes that he caught to take back to their home in Westcliffe, where their parents Jim and Donna Greene, live. That went against their mother's wishes, but she finally decided it was OK.

"I had snakes," said Donna Greene, who missed out on Wednesday's great turtle adventures. "I was at work, but heard all about it, especially from my 5-year-old. They were all excited."

The girls' grandmother, Lynn Marsh, phrased this twist on "taking a tiger by the tail" as a "surPRIZE" catch by a seven-year-old.

Donald Marsh had one thing that didn't go just right with the whole turtle tale: "I regret not having a videocamera. I should have videoed it."
Turtle tales: 7-year-old reels in a big one

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